Rolling Comic Book thread 2017

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.

Crackling Blazer is still the weirdest small press thing he ever done. "CABOO!"

I agree that the early Mr A strips that appeared in Witzend and elsewhere are amongst Ditko's best-drawn comics, so to dismiss them as simply 'terrible' seems an inattentive judgement. I don't know of any comic book work (as opposed to newspaper strip work) prior to Mr A that had expressed so plainly a political viewpoint- and tbh, the 'A is A' 'philosophy' espoused isn't any cruder or lacking in nuance than the 'democratic vigilantism' of most mainstream superhero comics. There's something singular about Ditko's best 'political' comics - they're obviously very deeply felt, and that intensity radiates from the page - and in his desire to express his views, he seems to be grasping for a whole new form of comics, reaching its apogee with the utterly unhinged Avenging World comic (which I'm lucky enough to own a signed copy of, inherited from Martin Skidmore, who got a cover out of Ditko for his fanzine FA back in the day.)

Fantagraphics of course published two volumes of Ditko comics, including lots of Mr A, before they had a big fallen out with Sturdy Steve - I expect those volumes are pretty collectible now. It will be interesting to see if the hook-up with IDW lasts longer.

I was never able to get the second Fantagraphics collection.

Grrl Scouts are back!!! This totally took me by surprise, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the earlier series (they're some of the first comics I bought myself - the art really caught my eye), so I snapped the new issue up immediately. I've never really been convinced by Jim Mahfood as a writer, but who cares - it's delirious crazy fun, and of course the art is awesome.

Not quite comic-y, but I was in a London charity bookshop, flipping through Michael Cho's sketchbook of Toronto alleyways, and my old apartment in it. I was like, holy shit, Michael Cho drew my back deck and toilet window

And *found* my old... I meant

Amazon has some deal where if you buy a digital graphic novel you get one of a selection of Marvel tpbs free in digital, too. Also, I think I knew but forgot if you want a collection on comiXology, check on amazon because the kindle edition, which also gives it to you on comiXology, sometimes cost half the price (?!?)

Surprise surprise, the Mr A collections are cancelled.

lol

Just read the first volume of Clean Room by Gail Simone. Reallllllly good, nasty horror. I don't even want to spoil the premise, which is clear by the end of the first volume, but it's real good.

I thought it was really up and down in floppies, entertaining enough but the final act felt superfluous.

really up and down in floppies

*snort*

not a fan of Simone's work.
Something i read that i kinda love is "Delicious Dungeon" by Ryoko Kui, an RPG cooking manga about a group of adventurers who meet up with an oddball dwarf chef who shows them how to hunt for food inside a dungeon to better LEVEL UP
the recipes are meticulous (there are graphs showing fat/protein content) and it's all meganerdy fun.
Scanlated online here: http://mangakakalot.com/manga/dungeon_meshi

first volume available in english now
https://www.amazon.com/Delicious-Dungeon-Vol-Ryoko-Kui/dp/0316471852

I just read the three hardcovers of Casanova and man my head hurts, from the last story especially. Anyone know where I could find a good plot summary or notes to what the hell I just read?

The newer ones that follow Luxuria/Gula/Avaritia?

If you want to start a thread, I'm game. I'm not sure there's a great rundown out there, although if you're really lost, it's nice to check a wiki-style site just as a cheat sheet of who the characters were originally before they get twisted through the space-time continuum.

What's been released of the third series is both more straightforward and more of a departure.

Sorry, *fourth* series. For some reason I keep thinking it's the third they're on.

yeah i just finished Avaritia

just read josh simmons 'furry trap' and it's immensely disturbing work, right up there with graham ingels and s. clay wilson as the most genuinely unsettling comics i've ever seen. it's cumulative as much as anything but even excerpts are unpleasant.
http://68.media.tumblr.com/092c721ea67c070621ab373d996d3894/tumblr_inline_ne6kif2PEc1rb0pi4.png

checked some excerpts and it verges a bit into johnny ryan-style "macho male misanthropy is hilarious" styles for my liking. but persuade me i'm wrong!