The Comic Book Thread

[MekaGojira3k]

Picked up a ton of comics today, I'll probably post about them as I get through them.

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

I'd read the hell out of this guy's DC reboot:





Is it too late to go back and re-film all the shots Superman footage in Man of Steel with this Superman costume?


PS - Has anyone read Thor: The Mighty Avenger? I flipped through a copy of one of the two trades and the art is beautiful, classic cartooning (Plus: Fin Fang Foom!). I also love the idea behind it: two awesome indie comics creators do an all-ages version of a classic superhero.

PPS- One of the things that's so excluding about mainstream comics is that they're sooo massive. DC and Marvel want you to get invested in a character and read about that characters adventures every month for (preferably in their view) the rest of your life. The investment you have to put in makes the whole thing (in my view) more of a chore than a fun hobby. They should create more things like All Star Superman; strong, self-contained stories featuring the characters that everyone loves that you don't have to spend an insane amount of your time on.

[MekaGojira3k]

I'd read it, too, though I don't really like Green Lantern not having a ring.

[kiryugoji04]

Oh, hey, Dresden Codak! I did a guest comic for him a few years ago.

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

Heard about Barnes and Noble and Books a Million pulling their DC trades? Craaaazy. I was at the comic shop today and almost picked up the first Animal Man and Swampy issues in support... but didn't. I'll probably wait for the trades. Anyone here reading these? Morrison's Action Comics also interests me. Not really in the position to add anything else to my pull list: all the Mignola-verse books (Hellboy, BPRD, Abe, and Baltimore), Usagi, The Goon, IDW's Godzilla books, and Dark Horse Presents. This is probably the biggest pull-list I've ever had, and I know I'll add IDW's Popeye when that title comes out. Well, I'm supporting my local comics shop!

Anyone reading IDW's Ninja Turtles? Might have to get the trades for that. Have loved the Turtles since I was a wee tike and collected the '00s Mirage titles for many years until the spotty quality wore me down (seems there was similar apathy behind the scenes).


Anyway, the main reason for this post is this:



I've mentioned before that I discovered this great comic called Finder by Carla Speed McNeil via a few 8-page shorts in Dark Horse Presents. I did a little snooping and found out that this series had been self-published since the mid-'90s and is now with Dark Horse. DH released the lasted Finder graphic novel, called Voice, last year, and in the last few months has re-released all previous Finder material in two massive bricks of paperbacks called "The Finder Library." I bought volume 1 which collects the first four graphic novels: Sin-Eater Part 1, Sin-Eater Part 2, King of the Cats, and Talisman.

This book is amazing. I've actually only read the first half of Sin-Eater because I'm following the advice of the fellow who wrote the forward and am spacing out my reading: this is the kind of thing you don't burn through. You've got to read a bit and set it down and let what you read sauté lightly in the back of your mind. As for what Finder is about; I'm still not sure. It's set far in the future in a world dominated by an upper-class of racially pure tribes. The cities still have some of the most egregious aspects of commercial greed and media saturation that we have now, but in the outside wastelands things are a whole lot more low-tech and "wild west." I know lots of SF writers have concocted similar worlds, but McNeil really makes her's distinct with fully thought-out cultures and a depth to her characters and thus how they respond to this world.

From what I've read it's as dense and rewarding as a good novel and as exhilarating as the most action-packed comic book.

What I'm sayin' is that it's really good.

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

Just wanted to post this: Scrooge McDuck v. Theodore Roosevelt, from The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion.

[Inferior Rodan]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Inferior Rodan]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

So... CBR decided to completely spoil a twist coming up at the end of BPRD Hell on Earth: Russia (of which we are only 2 issues in at present) *gumble*

Anyway, both the current BPRD and Abe Sapien stories are off to terrific starts. Abe Sapien issue 2 has one of the best comics covers I've ever seen:

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

Usagi Yojimbo jumped around different publishers during its first decade, meaning it was renumbered back to issue #1 twice. That means that despite what the number given on this latest issue is it's really the 200th issue! Stan Sakai and Dark Horse didn't let this occasion go by unnoticed, and this is a special anniversary issue.

In many ways this done-in-one issue story is the typical Usagi adventure: Usagi arrives in a new town, finds it occupied with villains who're terrorizing the people, befriends someone (or more commonly a family) in the town, there's a climatic showdown, ect. There are dozens of Usagi stories like this. but this one stands as a shining example. For one thing, Sakai clearly put in a lot of work on this one. His always stellar cartooning skills work overtime in making very dynamic art with some great visual storytelling. The scene where Usagi is drifting in and out of consciousness in masterful (compare it to an almost impossible to follow dream sequence in the latest issue of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters). There's also something special about Masa, the character Usagi befriends in the town. He has a striking resemblance to Sakai himself in both the cosmetic (i.e. he looks like Stan Sakai) and his actions. I wonder just how much of himself he put in that character and how much was just to serve the story...

Anyway, it's a great issue and despite summarizing almost 3 preceding decades of Usagi stories it is a completely stand-alone tale and perfect for a newbie!

[mr.negativity]

[quote="Chris Mautner"]Is Barks overrated? Is he really the comics master that people claim he is or was it simply that most of his contemporaries — especially where Disney comics were concerned — were so dull in comparison? Did the mystique surrounding Barks — the fact that he worked anonymously for so long — stoke his legend? In praising Barks, are we merely praising the surface elements of his work and ignoring whether his stories are stand up to the sort of strong critical scrutiny? Does mere nostalgia drive the bulk of our interest in his work? As one person put it on Twitter: “Is the worship of Barks just another case of comics culture’s elevation of craft over everything?â€

[lhb412]

^I'll be ordering that soon. I'm really excited about Fanta's Carl Barks Library... but I have to admit, I'm a bit more excited about the next volume: Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man (as I'm more of a Scrooge fan).

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

1stly:

Currently reading Fanatagraphics' Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes and it's a fantastic book, especially the longer adventure story that gives the volume its title. If you want to find out just what this Carl Barks business is all about then this is a good entry point.

Here's the cover for the next volume!



2ndly:

I recently bought Asterix Omnibus vol. 2, collecting comic albums 4-6 of France's most beloved (as in: it's a media juggernaut over there) comic book. It's a really wild collection of slapstick, bad puns (the English translators do a great job of replacing the French language puns with English ones), and high adventure.

And the art is some of the most gorgeous comic art I've seen. It's just a joy to look at. There's four rows of panels on each page, and despite the over-sized pages you'll still bring your eyes about 6 inches close to the page to get it all in. For one thing, the characters are very rarely drawn in closeup, so even with the over-sized art we have a mid-distant view of them and get a lot of visual information of the surroundings (where a lot of background gags take place).



3rdly:

WHAT TIME IS IT?!



Time for Adventure Time comics!

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]