Rolling Comic Book thread 2017

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

that thing is pure woodring alright

Thanks ulysses - and Jon, I can see why it's relevant to yr interests :-)

Reading some Aquaman archives. The story where one of Aquaman's foes decides to attack the surface world and one of Green Arrow's goes underwater, so instead of switching villains GA and Speedy don diving suits and Aquaman walks around a city with a fucking tank full of fish - it still makes me as angry as it did the first time I read it.

On a different note, anyone read Peter Bagge's Zora Neale Houston bio?

I thought his sanger bio was a lot of fun, would like to read the hurston... what an odd late career direction for him!

Loved the Sanger bio, yes. He was always one of the most reasonable libertarians I was aware of (damning with faint praise?), his wokening has been a pleasant surprise.

I haven't read either of the bios yet but I love pete bagge fiercely and will always love him

"Hippy House" is a perfect comic

Anya Davidson's Banned For Life. Pretty good.

Bagge's Sanger bio is the best thing he's done since the end of HATE proper. For his first book intended as a single graphic novel, it's also more tightly compressed than anything else he's done: pretty much each page is completely self-contained as an anecdote or study, as if he had serialised it piecemeal like his Founding Fathers Funnies.

(I told Mr Bagge how great I thought the book was, and what a shame it hadn't received any real attention or reviews, and he barkingly laughed that it had sold better than anything else he'd done for years. An excellently libertarian response, I thought.)

I only discovered the existence of his Hurston bio when I was searching her name on Amazon recently. I was...surprised.

hey i have a question for you comics fans. our kid is about to turn 6 and is ridiculously psyched to see Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. My guess is for a six year old that'll be a "no", even though i don't know the rating yet. i'm thinking PG-13 seems to be a safe bet.

but i've considered picking up the Valerian collection that's coming out this summer, right after his bday. what's the age level w/r/t disturbing material, violence, etc? Is it pretty dense and adult or is it pitched at a younger audience? he's really into sci-fi, or at least the notion of it. he's into the visuals and the invention of it all.

thanks!

What books does the collection include? The first two ("Bad Dreams" and "City of Shifting Waters") are very clearly oriented for kids, and the series kinda gradually shifts from "all ages" to "adult" throughout the years, so the more recent the book, the less kid-friendly it is.

The violence is never that bad, it's pretty much on Star Wars level throughout the series. But sexual themes start getting into the books later on. The first one of to deal with sex is "Heroes of the Equinox", where baby-making is a big part of the plot. But it's done in a rather cute and humorous way, it's all implied and nothing is shown on page. I remember finding it funny when I first read the book, I think I was around 9 years old. So if your kid knows where babies come from, it shouldn't be disturbing at all.

However, "On the Frontiers" includes a rather graphic rape scene, which bothered me a lot as a kid, and still bothers me as an adult. So definitely don't let your kid read that one! And "Birds of the Master" has some disturbing imagery of people being made into the slaves of the villain via technological devices implanted on them, kinda similar as in The Tripods. It didn't bother me as a child 'cause I'd seen worse in horror movies, but if your kid is sensitive to that sort of stuff, you should skip that book.

Another thing is that the writer also starts adding more political and social satire into the series as it goes on. This is already happening in "Heroes of the Equinox" (which satirizes socialism, fascism, and the 1970s green movement), but that one can still be read as a fun adventure story even if you don't get the allegory. However, the political commentary starts getting heavier around "The Ghosts of Inverloch"/"The Wrath of Hypsis" two-parter. When I read those as a kid, I simply found them boring.

So, I would say that the run of books from "Bad Dreams" to "Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos" is fair game for kids, with the aforementioned caveats for "Heroes of the Equinox" and "Birds of the Master". That's pretty much the classic run of the series anyway, the quality starts noticeably dropping around "The Wrath of Hypsis", and it never really recovers.

There's also a separate bestiary for the series, which depicts the various alien races and creatures Valérian & Laureline have met throughout their journeys, with beautiful painted illustrations by Mézières. Since I was a big fan of bestiaries with real animals too as a kid, I enjoyed that one immensely. Dunno if it's been translated to English tho?

And "Birds of the Master" has some disturbing imagery of people being made into the slaves of the villain via technological devices implanted on them, kinda similar as in The Tripods. It didn't bother me as a child 'cause I'd seen worse in horror movies

should i read this it sounds intersting

Everyone should read it, it's possibly the best sci-fi comic of all time, at least for the first dozen books or so. If imaginative cosmic visions and cool alien designs are your thing, you won't be disappointed. I'm still not sure whether George Lucas actually borrowed elements from it to Star Wars, but once you read it you'll understand why people (including the creators of the comic) think so.

the first volume includes Bad Dreams, City of Shifting Waters, and The Empire of a Thousand Planets. there are some more volumes slated for release, but i figured i'd just get the first one and see what he thinks. so i think i'll order it for him! he's watched the trailer probably about twenty times, i think he'll be pretty thrilled to get the book in lieu of seeing the film.

Wes Brodicus at 2:55 19 May 17

The scenes where people get swarmed by the titular birds are about as bad as the attic scene in that Hitchcock movie. Barely suitable for ten-year old me iirc.
xpost - "Les Habitants du ciel" - two volumes, neither of which was translated. The first one is grebt, haven't read the second.

I guess people's mileage may vary on this, those scenes didn't disturb me, and " Birds of the Master" was the first Valérian book I read around the age of 8. But I wasn't particularly scared by that Hitchcock movie either.

I didn't know about a second bestiary! Have to check whether they've translated that one into Finnish too.

xmessage

Yeah, that first volume should definitely be okay for a kid. It's worth noting that The Empire of a Thousand Planets is when the series really finds it's voice tho. Bad Dreams in particular is quite different from what follows, being a time travel story set mostly in the Middle Ages. So if your kid likes the cool aliens in the trailer, he might be a bit disappointed by it. TEoaTP is when depicting weird and colourful aliens and planets really becomes the series' draw.

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/article/asian_comics

I think I've mentioned this before. I think I'll buy it but it's a shame there doesn't seem to be enough pictures. I tend to lose interest in a lot of books about comics quite quickly but in this case, everything is so vague to me that this might be more engrossing.
Lent has a book on Chinese comics coming out soon, might be a reprint because I could swear I seen a very similar book years ago.

sounds interesting but no pics.. eh

Do you mean preview pictures? There's supposed to be 178 pictures in the book but just not nearly enough to cover all that you'd want.

Drawn And Dangerous (the Italian comics book) didn't have enough images but it was a brilliant examination.

this weekend i splurged on the JOJOVELLER art book and it's worth every penny

http://i.imgur.com/CyrCeh2.jpg

basically every page is jaw-dropping. i think i like steel ball run and jojolion the best, but there are some good jolyne ones too

Finished the run of Chew. Fun book, good times.

Astonishingly, Steve Ditko is working with IDW for Mr A collections to come out. I never thought he'd bother with anyone but Robin Snyder.

This is gonna one of those things we highly regret once it comes out, won't we

Depends which end of the black and white card you're at

Mr. A is terrible

My friend and I used to try to use as many of his crazy initialized dialogue formulae

(DOWENOBU = "don't weep now, but")

In conversation as we could

I had a couple of issues of Mr. A in my first collection back in the 80s. I remember them being really f-in weird and having all sorts of wild lettering.

The earliest Mr A stories are really well drawn and appealingly weird, like the thing that shouts out letters at people. A lot of the best stuff was splash images of criminals flailing around and sinking into the black side.

The Question was overall better though. The DC reprints of it look awful though.