Rolling Comic Book thread 2017

RIP Bernie Wrightson.

Next to my recommendations on the obituary thread, his Purple Pictography collaboration with Vaughn Bode is brilliant.

It's odd that he never got a proper art book after A Look Back in the late 70s. There were sketchbooks but never any other big ass books that he deserved.

RIP snappy skip williamson
http://www.tcj.com/skip-williamson-1944-2017/
back to back with Jayzey Lynch, truly sad

Yeah, it feels like the Comics Journal site is just a sucession of RIP articles these days. :( is 2017 the 2016 of comics?

http://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C1524101311#previewImages

I might go for this. I'm quite fond of Luis Garcia Mozos and Ramon Torrents. Apparently the reason so many of their women looked the same is because Mozos and a few others drew his girlfriend. They probably used a lot of the same models.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/3000-954/Will-Eisner-The-Centennial-Celebration-1917-2017-Ltd-Ed-HC#prettyPhoto

100 copies signed by Eisner?

A new volume of Miura's Berserk in July. Hope the story hurries up a bit but it probably won't.

you know what is low key one of the best monthly comics being made right now? The Flintstones. I shit you not.

Who's the creative team?

Barney and Wilma

I read a couple Flintstones comics after a previous recommendation on ILC. It's not bad, but it's just... too weird that it exists?

Like, it's a full colour, modern, Hanna-Barbera-approved glossy magazine,, when it feels like it should've been published in 1989, as some unofficial b&w photostatted piece of shit called the Flintstains or something.

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/books-comics/flintstones/263442/flintstones-10-exclusive-preview-pages
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/books-comics/snagglepuss/261937/theres-a-new-snagglepuss-comic-coming-and-it-sounds-great

Fred and Barney go to a porno theater is def some "1989... unofficial b&w photostatted piece of shit" steez no thx

eh, the vibe for me is peter bagge plotting with dan clowes dryness. i like it a lot.

has anyone on here read East of West? is it any good?

Well, I guess there's nowhere to go but up with Hanna Barbera characters, so good on DC, I guess.

I thought east of west was garbage

(And the most recent issue of the flintstones is the weakest unfortunately)

Much like Manhattan Projects, East of West is beautiful to look at, but gets wearyingly cynical after a few issues. Hickman is a lot like Geoff Johns sometimes - he likes pulling legs off flies and laughing about it. (He's a better writer than Johns, obviously.) And the 3000-part-storytelling gets a bit boring when he doesn't have iconic Marvel characters to hang his shtick off.

Which is to say, I think he's very smart but his sense of humour sucks.

Aside from that - just read By The Numbers, which collects a bunch of ligne-claire stories from the 90s, very much in Yves Chaland's "Tintin but ethically challenged" mode. Recommended library borrow, probably not worth paying for. The art looks better on the page than it does in JPG form below.

Also read Arkham Asylum for the first time - boy, everyone was right about it not being very good, but I guess you have to admire the fact that it was published at all. My favourite moment moment comes in GM's liner notes at the end, when he admits that the "subtextual material might have been lost on the casual reader". The 15th anniversary edition also includes GM's thumbnail panel sketches, with everything panelled out like a trad Jim Aparo comic. I think I might have preferred that comic.

https://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/By-the-Numbers-lite-21.jpg

arkham asylum felt super important when if first came out and unfortunately it was

i can recommend Koren Shadmi's 'The Abaddon' as a worthwhile take on No Exit; nice art, well laid out story
https://www.amazon.com/Abaddon-Koren-Shadmi/dp/1940878055
http://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/e04ba324653975.5604a8fe7b641.jpg

arkham asylum felt super important when if first came out and unfortunately it was

― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Sunday, April 9, 2017 5:20 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think more than any other lesson, living more than a couple decades has given me the insight that art that seems poignant or edgy in its time will be recycled into mainstream culture that makes you shrug or die a little years later. The comics to movie/television arc that's come to fruition of the last few years is both enlightening and soul destroying.

There's Dave McKean stuff going on in the tv/films?

The art's still dated better than the writing, I think

Arkham Asylum's not the best Batman story, obviously, but yeah - feel like Batman creators has been rebelling for decades (and continue to do so to this day!) against the effects of the '60s TV series and comics of the time. Easier to look back and appreciate both sides for what they are.

McKean thought Arkham was overblown and embarrassing at the time iirc

if you read it as a parody of sandman starring batman it makes sense

insert sic comment taking me literally and explaining their publication dates were close enough together that it couldn't be the case

All those Hanna Barbera DC titles seem to be trying a bit too hard to me. I do read Future Quest because I needed some brainless superhero crossover stuff and having been introduced to a lot of those characters by Adult Swim it's never not hilarious to me when Space Ghost or Brak show up and the other characters take them seriously.

I gave up on East Of West and Manhattan Projects both because I was reading them in floppies and keeping track of what was happening seemed as difficult as it is with any superhero continuity wank. MP at least reads better in trade.

Fred and Barney go to a porno theater is def some "1989... unofficial b&w photostatted piece of shit" steez no thx

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Late to correct this, but they aren't. They're going to see their version of Steel Magnolias and later persuade other Elks to go and see... I want to say it's Fried Green Tomatoes but I can't remember. It's women baring their souls they're talking about.

The Flintstones is the only one of the first wave Hanna Barbera books that's really been worthwhile but it's been wonderful and is without a doubt the bets thing DC are publishing just now. It's true this issue was maybe weaker than the rest but the end of the Vacuum Cleaner plot was unexpected and emotional.

Of the second wave, they all look promising except DiDio's Top Cat (some would say unsurprisingly). The crossover annuals pretty much stunk although I suppose the Flintstones/Booster Gold was at least engaging.

East of West started well then turned into a rambling, confusing mess. The Manhattan Projects was great for the first 10 issues or so but then I totally lost interest and I can't remember the last issue I read of the reboot.

the vacuum cleaner and crew rescuing bowling ball from the recycled pet food factory was kinda amazing

Loved bowling bowl learning an actual joke in #10 after the conversation in #9.

The positive discussion of the Hanna Barbera books feels a little like a very elaborate practical joke.

tbf, the book does too

East of West reminds me a bit of Grendel because of the scope and the artist's style reminds me quite a bit of 80s Matt Wagner. I've read it as the issues come out and it is a comic that might be a better read when it is all done. There are a bunch of characters and it took really 18-20 issues until you have really seen all of 'the world' and background. I'd say it's probably at the 3/4 mark in the total story, although I got a feeling at some point there are going to be some flashbacks to how this world came to be this way. I'm in for the duration to see how it plays out.

Faith Erin Hicks' The Nameless City Vol. 1 was fun, Avatar-style Chinese mythological adventure, though more grounded (no magic, lots of politics). Looking forward to Vol. 2 this year.

Reading IDW's first volume of Dan DeCarlo Archie comics. Caught myself wondering if some comic artists just become legendary through nostalgia and fans growing up - these comics aren't bad really, but they are frequently quite crudely drawn afaict. Is DeCarlo seen as a master of the medium or somesuch? The fact that the collection's named after him and not the scripter makes me think it might be the case. Anyway, still reading on because it's mostly Betty and Veronica stuff and the strips kinda give a wild look into what it was like to live under the patriarchy circa 1957 - Jughead gets straight up called out as a misogynist once!

I haven't seen that particular volume, but DeCarlo is definitely considered the 'definitive' Archie artist (I dunno about 'master of the medium'). 1957 would be fairly early into his career - by the 60s and, especially, 70s (when he co-created Josie and the Pussycats, for example) his work was slick, sexy and extremely accomplished in terms of clear storytelling; he pretty much single-handedly defined a more modern look for the Archie characters that was clearly copied by other, often less expert Archie artists. The fact that, as with so many other creators toiling on characters they didn't own, he was under-rewarded and under-recognised throughout his career may also have contributed to the rise in his posthumous reputation.

Good point in that the quality of his work improves immensely over the decades

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/extinction-a-graphic-novel-project-comics#/

The first season of the live-action Korean adaptation of Kaiji Kawaguchi's excellent manga "Eagle" (called "President" in English) is now available on US Netflix. Haven't seen but am curious based on an affinity for the source material
https://www.netflix.com/title/80154638
http://geekandsundry.com/if-you-like-house-of-cards-youll-love-the-manga-eagle/

Oh wow, I remember that series. Crazy!
Just read a decent bio, Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo by Sandrine Revel

The cartoonist Mark Newgarden recently re-shared this on his Facebook page, and I've been obsessed by it ever since. The only known comic strip by Eugene Teal, originally printed by R. Crumb in the first issue of Weirdo:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_O2DWDvN4DUU/SiRmI0Pgx0I/AAAAAAAAAqg/JleXFm4IsyM/s400/img019.jpg

This youtube version clears things up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW2SZgROuMs&list=LLWwmSqUluMWZ5qidhsGaTzA

Doh, one more try

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW2SZgROuMs&list=LLWwmSqUluMWZ5qidhsGaTzA

FFS

Oh man I think about that comic all the time even now, IIRC Jim woodring and I discussed our love of it once

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW2SZgROuMs