Rolling Comic Books 2019

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Irving's artwork is a bit different style, he seems to use a bunch more feathery detail work on everything. Some of the pages are also almost designed paintings with the text overlaid including the pages on the godworld and viewing the space station. Those were some of the pages that reminded me of Billy the Sink.

Can't remember if Irving colored his own artwork on the DC comics or not.

earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:40 (five years ago) link

I thought it was pretty fun and would read a sequel, if ever made.

earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:41 (five years ago) link

Need to track down the last 2 issues of Nameless, which I never got on my pull list. Did not see how that crazy story was going to wrap up in 2 issues at all, it seemed like it was setup to be a longer series to me on the first 4.

earlnash, Saturday, 26 January 2019 21:43 (five years ago) link

I lost patience with Nameless, the body horror stuff was a bit offputting. IMO GM is much stronger at showing the horror/weirdness in the quotidian that going full oogum-boogum-horror.

I kinda hate Irving's art, I'm afraid. Klarion was fine but everything since has Bachalo-levels of unintelligibility to me, and I don't like the way he draws faces.

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 January 2019 13:24 (five years ago) link

*than going

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 January 2019 13:24 (five years ago) link

I know this is not exactly the right thread for this - do we have a thread for superhero movies that don't have their own thread yet? - but the news that there's going to be a Birds of Prey movie with
* Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn
* Jurney Smollett-Bell as Black Canary
* Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress
* Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya
has brightened my day a bit

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:25 (five years ago) link

Formatting help you lieeeee

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:25 (five years ago) link

i'll put money on that movie never materialising

maxwell’s silver hang suite (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:28 (five years ago) link

You don't think they'll release the Birds of Prey movie they're shooting right now?

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:51 (five years ago) link

It's the next The Day the Clown Cried.

See you later, I'm going to go take a look at this suicide robot. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:58 (five years ago) link

I knew that would happen once I heard about the subplot with Jared Leto in a concentration camp.

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:59 (five years ago) link

St Marks Place closing next month
https://www.facebook.com/stmarkscomicsny/posts/1981009038615305

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:18 (five years ago) link

Huh... I lived in NYC at one point, but don’t remember a comic shop on St. Marks.

i stan corrected (morrisp), Friday, 1 February 2019 05:11 (five years ago) link

Seriously?!? That place was my store for like six years. It's very much what I think of when I think of a comic book shop.

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 1 February 2019 05:13 (five years ago) link

two weeks pass...

so... if i want to give less money to amazon but my LCS is a dumpster fire (I've ordered about a dozen books this year through them that just never showed up) what's a good slightly more ethical source of comix

Nhex, Tuesday, 19 February 2019 06:35 (five years ago) link

buying direct from the artists, or from What Things Do, or Wow Cool, or Spit And A Half (though I think he's reducing his operations?), or Emerald Comics Distro, or direct from publishers, or from comic shops that do mail order, or etc etc etc

steven, soda jerk (sic), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 08:04 (five years ago) link

Try doing that from Australia and you'll be bankrupt in a day.

Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 21:20 (five years ago) link

I pretty much used to use my tax return to clear off my comics-ordering bill for the year, before postage went completely insane 5-6 years ago.

buying Australian comics direct from the artists has pretty much been the only option in Sydney since Land Beyond Beyond closed 20-odd years ago

steven, soda jerk (sic), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link

i looked at those but they're pretty specific to particular artists and labels
looking for more general stuff. maybe i'll just stick to midtowncomics

Nhex, Wednesday, 20 February 2019 05:52 (five years ago) link

well you did just ask for more ethical sources of comics w/ no further guidelines! buying direct from the artists is usu. going to limit you to those artists’ comics, yeah

steven, soda jerk (sic), Wednesday, 20 February 2019 07:12 (five years ago) link

closing entry on the ham fisher/al capp feud on TCJ comes with a solidly intriguing theory on the grit that caused the pearl:
http://www.tcj.com/hubris-and-chutzpah-how-lil-abner-kayod-joe-palooka-and-both-their-creators-came-to-grief-part-9/

Was surprised to find this on spotify btw:
https://folkways.si.edu/al-capp/an-interview-with/oral-history-biography/album/smithsonian
https://open.spotify.com/album/1eWf9BydlQx4uTfH7WodAt?si=bDnVHUCFTCmyy9ga5bpoLA

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 21 February 2019 20:34 (five years ago) link

In December, Viz releases Junji Ito's adaptation of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human. I had no idea he had done such a thing.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 23 February 2019 21:59 (five years ago) link

Gahan Wilson is suffering from advanced dementia and needs help. His wife of many decades passed away Saturday and as a result he is going to be discharged from the assisted living facility where they lived.

https://www.gofundme.com/gahan-wilson-team-effort

Speaking for myself, Wilson was the first invasion of my little mind by the Weird - my uncle gave my dad a copy of And Then We’ll Get Him for Xmas when I was 7 or 8 and I imbibed it utterly, terrified and transfixed by a world of bodily instability, disease and mutation which was also, apparently, funny??? God bless this man.

valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Monday, 4 March 2019 17:36 (five years ago) link

that's hugely sad to hear

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 4 March 2019 19:53 (five years ago) link

I'm reading Uncomfortably Happily by Yeon-sik Hong. Comics artist couple move from Seoul to the sticks and deal with career and money worries, the cold, transportation. The protagonist is an archetypal Indie Comics Dude in a way - self loathing, neurotic, frequently a dick to his wife. But despite that I'm finding the narrative likeable and engaging - also fascinated by the author's choice of doing frequent musical numbers, which surely is not what the medium of comics is best suited to.

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 5 March 2019 10:39 (five years ago) link

that's an interesting book but soooooooooooooooo long.
but it's a biography so he's really gotta makes you feel their pain

Nhex, Wednesday, 6 March 2019 00:54 (five years ago) link

Yeah, it's super long. I got through most of it at one sitting because I was waiting for something, otherwise I dunno if I would have had the patience.

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 6 March 2019 11:01 (five years ago) link

That Kirkman related Die!Die!Die! was not very good at all. I liked some of Chris Burhams earlier comics but man this one is gory as he!!. It's definitely trying to go over the top like something written by Garth Ennis, Millar or Hickman have done but with even less nuance.

earlnash, Saturday, 9 March 2019 18:02 (five years ago) link

Also kinda weird that it came out through Image the same time as Gillen/Hans' Die (which I'm liking so far!)

Nhex, Saturday, 9 March 2019 18:37 (five years ago) link

Kirkman is not very good at all

EZ Snappin, Saturday, 9 March 2019 19:01 (five years ago) link

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbpnUgulSSI/
Jeremy Bastian is killing it these days.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 March 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link

Have not finished it, but I liked Outcast pretty well. I've tried with Walking Dead but have never finished the first omnibus. I liked his run on Ant-man, that was pretty fun.

earlnash, Sunday, 10 March 2019 06:23 (five years ago) link

Picked up a volume of the Fantagraphics Disney collection focusing on European artists - this stuff is super interesting to me, having read Disney comics as a kid and never having gotten any kind of explainer of how the system works - there's Italian, Danish and Brazilian writers that I know of, probably there's a ton more. And of course they wouldn't get credit on the comics themselves.

Daniel_Rf, Monday, 11 March 2019 11:26 (five years ago) link

Half-off sale on a hundred books at Fanta (plus some other things, like early-90s postcard sets): http://www.fantagraphics.com/bargain-books/

steven, soda jerk (sic), Tuesday, 19 March 2019 20:44 (five years ago) link

good heads up

Nhex, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 03:41 (five years ago) link

Love this cover line

https://getcomics.info/dc/aquaman-46-2019/

Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 22:23 (five years ago) link

Oops

http://s24195.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Aquaman-46.jpg

Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link

how pathetic does Warner Brothers expect the Captain Marvel movie to sell if they have to advertise on the front cover of comic books

steven, soda jerk (sic), Wednesday, 20 March 2019 22:49 (five years ago) link

Did he look back at Sodom?

What's that Phish song that goes "Bag it, Tag it"? (morrisp), Thursday, 21 March 2019 02:58 (five years ago) link

5 easy ways to survive when you turn to salt... #3 will shock you

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 21 March 2019 03:46 (five years ago) link

Am also shocked that Impact font is still allowed (or desired by people whose job it is to put fonts on things)

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 21 March 2019 16:46 (five years ago) link

DC has spent much of the year thus far (arguably for a number of years prior but really ramped up for 2019) demonstrating their dedication to questionable decisions. Subpar typefaces and movie ads on their covers are just skimming the surface.

Soupy Slacks (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 March 2019 16:57 (five years ago) link

(So much upheaval over such a little Batwang.)

Soupy Slacks (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 March 2019 16:58 (five years ago) link

I like the Bendis Superman books and assumed things were getting better. What have they fucked up now?

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 21 March 2019 17:06 (five years ago) link

lengthy sidestep into crime-world and sudden introduction of superboy is readable i thought, sprawling super syndicate underground a little less so
in general they seem okay so far?

, , Thursday, 21 March 2019 17:10 (five years ago) link

Finished the two volumes of Queen Esmeraldas by Leiji Matsumoto. I like how quiet and spacious it is, there's some cool places, and there is atmosphere but it's very annoying how Esmeraldas introduces herself constantly and keeps saying the same things about herself, the story is just way too impressed by the characters and ominous plot points seem to be dropped or ignored (unless they carried into other related stories).
There's a Harlock crossover with lots more humor, the cat being attached to the pole to eat the bird was funny. I was amused by the dad executing his own bratty daughter in the main story but I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny.

Read half of the first Captain Harlock book, much more comedic but still has some of the same annoyances. I dropped it, completely leaving the second book (hopefully I'll finally stop buying multiple comics in a series before I've read the first, thank fuck I didn't buy the third Harlock book and Space Battleship Yamato book. I'm worried I wont have the patience for my Hellboy omnibuses).

Having said all this I think others may want to give them a try. It does come off like a libertarian fantasy sometimes though, it's a cruel galaxy until kindred spirits with similar goals of absoloute freedom help each other out.

Some of the animated versions (Matsumoto seems to write most of them?) are supposed to be great, but there's hundreds of them. It's all one big Matsumoto universe.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 22 March 2019 19:45 (five years ago) link

I dug into some Marvel stuff lately to catch up and read the up-to-date runs of Conan, Punisher, Immortal Hulk and Avengers No Road Home. All pretty good, especially the last two. Ewing is on a roll!

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 22 March 2019 19:50 (five years ago) link

So I guess Paul P0pe got out from under #metoo by virtue of getting #metoo'd before #metoo?

Nhex, Friday, 5 April 2019 00:26 (five years ago) link

do I actually want to know what that’s in reference to, or would it just be more extraneous shit that makes me throw out things I could actually sell?

mh, Friday, 5 April 2019 02:26 (five years ago) link

serial sexual creep allegations back in 2015? 2016?

EZ Snappin, Friday, 5 April 2019 02:39 (five years ago) link

suprisingly deep coverage, good video!

Nhex, Monday, 16 December 2019 23:51 (four years ago) link

i got a copy of Eleanor Davis' The Hard Tomorrow for the holidaze from my mom; it's breathtaking. What a talent.

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 20:52 (four years ago) link

SyFyWire have published a list of "the best indie comics of the decade" that consists of nine Image comics, one tumblr, one iOS app, and a DC book.

insecurity bear (sic), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 21:35 (four years ago) link

Finishing the last LOEG volume- the points being made are very much not new to those who follow Moore's work, but its stylistic playfulness still is enough to keep me gripped. That bing said, really can' be bothered with those 3D glasses for more than a couple of pages.

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 12:38 (four years ago) link

I loved the earlier volumes of LOEG but haven't yet got to this one. Partly because I don't give much of a shit about the comic characters he's making use of in the same way I do C19th literary characters. Is it still doing the "lots of unpleasant sex is really hilarious" thing?

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 19 December 2019 03:59 (four years ago) link

It's still horny, yeah. All the other valid criticisms of the series also still apply (fucking Gollywog STILL IN IT ffs, I know Moore means well but god does he refuse to read a room). Did you read The Black Dossier? That's still my favourite, and probably the best summation of the serie's thematic concerns. This one has a lot of super hero stuff but also a lot of characters from spy stuff and weird animal characters that don't come from comics.

Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 19 December 2019 11:01 (four years ago) link

I think this is the only volume I haven't read. Black Dossier is great--my one claim to fame is getting a credit for explaining references in Jess Nevins's book of annotations.

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 21 December 2019 00:57 (four years ago) link

controversial opinion: Moore does backmatter/prose breaks better than others and may be the best at it, but I keep getting more bored by these conceptual bits where he bounces between media and just wish he’d write a comic book

mh, Saturday, 21 December 2019 02:20 (four years ago) link

two months pass...

Just read the Fantagraphics-published BEST OF WITZEND, which collects some of the worst-written comics I've ever had the bad luck to come across. Luckily it was from the library.

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 00:30 (four years ago) link

Yeah, that was very much a regretful purchase.

Doubling down on out of date information (aldo), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 08:13 (four years ago) link

Great art tho!

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:21 (four years ago) link

Oh aye, lovely to look at but it's a big bit of shelf (and cost) that could otherwise have been filled.

Doubling down on out of date information (aldo), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:41 (four years ago) link

I mean, this splash page alone is worth 80 quid of anyone's money:

https://schulzlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/witzendmra.jpg?w=584

Also think it's interesting that Ditko was heavily involved with the editorial side on the early issues of WITZEND - he was obviously v sympathetic to Wood's desire to retain copyright/editorial independence, as well as being an admirer of Wood's incredible drawing skills.

It's not always about the writing.

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 10:55 (four years ago) link

I don't think a splash page with two ridiculously long speech bubbles is worth 80 quids, even if the layout is otherwise fine.

Tuomas, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 11:09 (four years ago) link

he really went full Ditko, there

mh, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 15:29 (four years ago) link

that splash is amazing - is it all Ditko?

Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 17:24 (four years ago) link

Yep - he had a real golden period after he was newly liberated from Marvel - see also those amazing black and white strips for Warren he was doing at about the same time

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 18:02 (four years ago) link

Man. Wonder if he'd kept up a style like that through the '80s, his overtly ideological work might have caught on better under direct market distribution?

(I love the fact that his drawing and techniques changed so often, and that switching to doing his own lettering eventually let him integrate it so much better in the polemic work - Tuomas is right that even on paper those rant-balloons would be foreboding - but the inking and especially shading there show how drastically undermined as an artist he was at Marvel.)

Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 20:15 (four years ago) link

Right at the end of the 60s Ditko got very ill and he when he came back - mainly at Charlton - his style had notably deteriorated, even on the creator-owned material, sadly.

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 21:21 (four years ago) link

This site has 'Collector's Edition', his best-known strip for Warren - again decent page rates, and the opportunity to stick it to Stan Lee, brought out the best in him

http://steveditkostuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/collector-edition-creepy-presents-steve.html

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 21:25 (four years ago) link

very good!

Nhex, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link

The Mr A stuff is terrible. Huge slabs of libertarian bullshit text taking up half the page.

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 00:36 (four years ago) link

Right at the end of the 60s Ditko got very ill and he when he came back - mainly at Charlton - his style had notably deteriorated, even on the creator-owned material, sadly.

Ah / aw. if I'd ever read that I'd forgotten it, but certainly tracks with what I've seen of his '70s and '80s WFH (though I think Shade was good? I bought the first few back when the Milligan series started. Notably created and head-written by Ditko, which no doubt makes a difference.).

Thanks for the Collectors Edition link. Goodwin's adherence to both 1970s prolix standards and Feldstein homage shows how well-planned the lettering placement really is on that Mr A splash, by contrast! Do you mean "stick it to Stan Lee" by putting in more careful work for better money, or that Danforth, with his mustache and grasping insensitivity about art, is intended as a Lee dis?

Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Thursday, 19 March 2020 08:00 (four years ago) link

I thought Gray Morrow's Witzend work was pretty good but there wasnt quite enough to be enticed to buy that. Not enough of the artists raised their game that much.

Is Silver Surfer: Black any good?

Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 20 March 2020 21:52 (four years ago) link

Huge slabs of libertarian bullshit text taking up half the page.

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, March 18, 2020 12:36 AM

My comic collection: 98% good art with 90% slabs of bullshit text.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 20 March 2020 21:59 (four years ago) link

i like that we're so desperate to pretend we're not in the moment that we've gone back in time for this thread

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 20 March 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link

but yes, Surfer: Black is excellent. You're right to make the Ditko connection with Moore.

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 20 March 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link

but yes, Surfer: Black is excellent. You're right to make the Ditko connection with Moore.

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 20 March 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link

(though I think Shade was good? I bought the first few back when the Milligan series started. Notably created and head-written by Ditko, which no doubt makes a difference.)

Oh yes, there are still plenty of highlights post-sixties - Avenging World (his densest, most intense tract where the word/text balloons REALLY go wild), the 'Killjoy' back-up strips in Charlton's E-Man, Stalker (a nice four-issue fantasy series inked by Wally Wood et al), Shade for certain, lots of things. But always the drawing is looser, cruder, than before, the panels larger and less detailed. I almost hate to invoke the phrase 'folk art' but there is a kind of individualistic intensity to Ditko's most engaged work that to seems to me beyond good and evil, left and right, just a unique personal iconography and mode of expression.

Do you mean "stick it to Stan Lee" by putting in more careful work for better money, or that Danforth, with his mustache and grasping insensitivity about art, is intended as a Lee dis?

Mostly the former, although Archie Goodwin wrote a number of variations on the grasping insensitive-exploited artist theme for Warren, and yes, the model is definitely EC. Goodwin and Warren used EC artists on Creepy and Eerie whenever the could, plus Ditko, Colan, Adams etc from the post-EC generation.

Ward Fowler, Saturday, 21 March 2020 10:59 (four years ago) link

I think he was still doing some of his best work for Charlton in the early 70s.

Of his later creator owned stuff I prefer the loopiest things like Crackling Blazer, Missing Man and Mr Quiver. The drawing was a bit more oomph when he did humor. Then there was that ink wash thing he did for Strange Avenging Tales.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 21 March 2020 13:19 (four years ago) link


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