The Comic Book Thread

[lhb412]

Just finished The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, a sort of career-spanning anthology of comics and artwork punctuated by autobiographical text that begins each chapter. First of all, I wanted to check out Crumb's work and this book is so perfect for that. It's just put together in an excellent way, and it should be a template for a whole lot of books spotlighting particular artists. It's a sampler of comics and a book about the birth of the underground comix scene, an autobiography and an art book, ect. ect.

A whole lot of this book is dedicated to a single recurring theme: Crumb's depraved sexual fantasies. Sure to turn off some, but in a post-South Park world I can't imagine it getting that big a rise out of anyone (maybe that robs a lot of this material of it's original subversiveness?). What I enjoyed the most were the comics and art dealing with Crumb's sincere obsession with old music and culture. There's such a fondness for the subject matter here, and while a kind of self-guilt runs through his more perverse material here it's just pure enthusiasm. He even seems to lavish more detail on this material, makes me want to get his 'Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country' book...

[klen7]

"Half Past Danger" is getting some really strong reviews. Looking forward to it. I also have a pull for "Wake" a new horror/sci-fi series from Scott Snyder, haven't heard much buzz yet but that guy can write some good characters and undersea creatures sound like a win.

[lhb412]

Read The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics. It's awesome. If you're interested in comics history you need this book. It's edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, and is just 350 pages of kids comics mainly from the '40s and '50s. It's got a heaping helping of the two biggest and best known kids comics of the era: John Stanley's Little Lulu and Carl Barks' Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge. It also features a lot of the more prominent artists to work in kids and humor comics: Sheldon Mayer, Basil Wolverton, Walt Kelly (before becoming a newspaper strip guy) - but then they dig up all this totally obscure stuff that's all but forgotten like Intellectual Amos, a comic that, if the three stories presented here are any indication, was a gorgeously drawn and involving comic about a super-smart adolescent and his goblin pal who go on adventures that teach actual science lessons.

Oh, and I need to read more of Stanley's Little Lulu. I've heard it was great for years, but the stories in this book impressed me far more than any accolades could: it made me laugh like a maniac. I think this is the only time when reading a comic became difficult for me simply because I was laughing too much.

So, yeah: Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics. Huge, gorgeous over-sized hardcover goin' for real cheap on amazon right now. Buy it!

[MekaGojira3k]

Picked up
Winter Soldier #19, sort of lacklustre end for the story arc and the book.

Thanos Rising #3, not as good as the previous entries, but the ending seems to hint at better things.

Thor - The Dark World - Prelude Issue #1 - This is more of a prelude to Avengers...I picked it up on a whim, not bad...but nothing really to tie it to TDW.

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

I love the new Guardians of the Galaxy stuff, but I think my comic store didn't give me issue 3 :/ so I've got to solve that somehow before 4 comes out next week.

[klen7]

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

Got Issue 3 today!
It was superb! I really like where I think this is going.

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[klen7]

[lhb412]

Reading the first Kamandi archive edition. It may be a while before DC reprints the omnibi in paperback, but luckily by public library had this book!

It feels like every truly great Saturday morning action cartoon starting with Johnny Quest and ending with Thundarr, infused with pure, unadulterated Kirby awesomeness/strangeness.

[MekaGojira3k]

[The Real McCoy]

[MekaGojira3k]

[The Real McCoy]

I doubt it; I kind of got the vibe that she was...disappointed...after the fact. Who knows. Even though I haven't seen a lot of them due to my relatively new comic hobby, love situations seem kind of awkward, unless it's a long-time thing like Cyclops and Jean or Ant-Man and Wasp. I also think it's weird that in the movies Tony and Pepper are a big thing, but in the comics they're not; I know the two universes are separate, but it's just weird.

In The Mighty Avengers, Wonder Man had a fling with Ms. Marvel that lasted like - a page - and I was like "OOO! Can't wait to see how that plays out!" and then it didn't happen again and it felt totally out of place. It's like I want it to happen and then it doesn't and it's a let-down. I'm a hopeless romantic.

[MekaGojira3k]

[The Real McCoy]