[stone monkey]

I've found Brent Anderson a little too scratchy for my tastes, I suspect he needs a better (or smoother) inker - his art was the thing I found quite offputting about Astro City;well, that and the whole po-faced, self importance of it all.

Gene Ha is, of course, a genius; his work on Global Frequency #12 andThe 49ers is absolutely jawdropping.

Immonen is an interesting one for me - he drew Legion of Superheroes, for a while, several years ago and his work was nicely rendered but bland (it reminded me a lot of Chris Sprouse) over the last few years he's developed a looser style which is much more energetic and fun. And which suits NextWave down to the ground.

ps. Someone asked, a bit ago, how many floppies I get each month. Here's the current list of titles I'm buying:

All Star Superman
Mouse Guard
The Sword
Drafted
Thor
The Umbrella Academy
Zombies vs. Robots v. Amazons
Black Summer
The Programme
Ultimate Human
Pax Romana
Jack Staff
The Immortal Iron Fist
Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus
Ultimate Power

Most of these, you might notice, are limited issue series, in fact Lobster Johnson and Ultimate Power have actually just finished as of Jan 08. I'm not particularly hot on ongoing series as they get a bit samey; which is why I'm toying with the idea of dropping Thor at the moment. A few of the rest have very irregular publishing schedules. There are a couple of titles in the pipeline that I'll get once they start being published; Rocketo, whenever it shows up again, comes to mind here.

[stone monkey]

Seeing as I started it, I guess it's fitting that I'm the only one who ever bumps this thread. So.... I guess it's time for the quarterly (or so) update on what comics and graphic novels everyone's reading. What new discoveries do you have to share?

The big news for me is Jonathan Hickman's output - if you get a chance have a look at the trade of The Nightly News which is unlike pretty much anything else out there. He's self publishing (under the Image aegis) at the moment and has three other titles currently in publication - Transhuman an ersatz documentary about the emergence of bioengineered and cybernetically augmented superhumans and is hilarious; Pax Romana a time travel/alternate universe tale that starts with the Catholic Church sending a bunch of Special Forces types to conquer the Roman Empire at the time of Constantine; and A Red Mass For Mars which (after one issue) would appear to be about the end of world and is set in a Utopian future of superhumans that is about to come crashing down.

If you can you should have a look at The Arrival by Shaun Tan - which is a wordless Graphic Novel that's an extended metaphor about the immigrant experience, set in a magic realist version of early 20th Century New York. It's truly a thing of beauty.

I am, of course, doing both Secret Invasion (for reasons unknown to even myself) and Final Crisis (for the Grant Morrison insanity and stunning JG Jones art - issue #1, which amongst other things has the Green Lantern Corps sealing off the Earth as a crime scene because one of the New Gods has been murdered, really doesn't disappoint on that score)

[polishgenius]

I've been looking at Hickman, but not read anything yet. When I have some money I'll probably get The Nightly News.


I haven't read much recently, and being a tradesman ¬_¬ I don't make 'discoveries' anyway.

I did read Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory recently, and I have to say I was disappointed. Great ambition, a lot of neat ideas, but ultimately crippled by its own ambition. Two of the plotlines had no apparent connection to the main plot beyond the most tenuous forced links (Bulleteer and Mr Miracle), and a couple of the others were pretty pointless. And the ending was wholly unsatisfying - in fact it was a total cop-out.

It reminded me a lot of the film, Southland Tales, which I watched the same week - same ambition and clever ideas, but a bit bloated and built up to a conclusion which never actually happened.

I think Morrison needs someone to keep him in check a lot of the time, he's got a gigantic ego and ambition and it sometimes takes over his work. Which is why he's a very good writer but not a great one.

[stone monkey]

I haven't really bothered with 7S, and apparently I should because Final Crisis, I'm told, will make a whole lot more sense if you've read it. I do agree that Morisson probably needs an editor who'll stand up to him to keep him on track; but that said, the guy's an explosion in an ideas factory so I think cutting him a bit of slack is necessary.

[polishgenius]

From what I know of Final Crisis, that's true. One of the plots (you can probably work out which but I won't spoil) has more in common with Final Crisis and all that than with Seven Soldiers itself.

It can be annoying the way Morrison does that, as well - to get the most out of his stories you have to read several others. Like things mentioned in 7S only made sense to me once I read an Ultramarine Corps book that he wrote - where the relevant part was only an aside to the main plot, almost. And I don't have the time, money or patience to be seeking out everything he's ever written to get the most out of it.
Ambition is great, but if he's going to do that I'd prefer if he did a completely isolated set of books not linked to the DCU, because he's linking the biggest events in DC to his own personal side-projects and that gets expensive.

Also, it might allow his ideas more time to air.

Plus, I do think that what is apparently going on in FC, seeing solicits, is a bold choice to say the least.

[stone monkey]

At least he didn't try and link it to Seaguy! The rumour is that 7S only happened because Morrison was pissed about not getting to do Infinite Crisis and DC were desperate to keep him - especially as he might have gone across to Marvel and linked up with his old writing partner, Mark Millar (which would at least have meant we'd have got to see Marvel Boy 2 I suppose)

I think the problem isn't just Morrison's; it's the major side effect of the big cumbersome continuity that most of the Big Two's current titles are carrying around. Last years Amazons Attack mess for DC was a case in point - at various points in the story it was referring you to at least three other titles if you wanted to have any clue as to what was going on.

This years Secret Invasion for Marvel promises to be even worse; the scuttlebutt has it that it's happening mainly because Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada really doesn't like the last twenty odd years of Marvel continuity and wants to reset events to how they were at the end of the 70s! So he's having everything that's occurred in the lives of most of Marvel's characters retconned to instead having happened to their deep-cover-agent Skrull duplicates. So, presumably, once the crossover is over most titles continuity will be referring to stories nearly 30 years old!

I, for one, most definitely cannot afford to go out buying titles that old just so I can understand what's happening in next month Spider-Man.

[wolf_2099]

stone monkey;333377 said:

At least he didn't try and link it to Seaguy! The rumour is that 7S only happened because Morrison was pissed about not getting to do Infinite Crisis and DC were desperate to keep him - especially as he might have gone across to Marvel and linked up with his old writing partner, Mark Millar (which would at least have meant we'd have got to see Marvel Boy 2 I suppose)

Morrison wanted to do Hyper-Crisis. Which he openly admits now was an awful idea, and would have been a huge mess. He talked about it at NYCC, it sounded bad.

Seaguy is pretty much Morrison at his craziest. I am looking forward to Pablo the hundred year old beekepper and a bull wearing stockings and a hat.


Joe Q just hated the last 20 years of Spider-Man, not all of Marvel. Man, did he butt-rape Spider, wow.

Bendis has been the mastermind behind Secret Invasion, and I oddly think uit is shaping up better than House of M, or any of the other corssovers they've done lately, but it will still be shit if there are not any lasting repercussions from it.


DC's been doing a better job with the big events, sure, you need to know a ton about their books (and minor characters), but the storys are huge, and resonate through their universe and actually don't get ret-conned 3 months later.

[polishgenius]

That last is actually a really good point - Marvel have a hefty chunk of the best writers, but so far DC have had the balls to stick with a lot of their major alterations (although perhaps they're less ballsy initially, at least with story) while with Marvel it's been either retcon city or massive worldchanging events conventiently manage not to affect any of the major characters (I'm thinking House of M here). Obviously there are exceptions both ways (and DC have generally shied away from taking risks with their biggest characters anywy) but that's the general impression I get.

Mind, having seen the solicits for DC giving away what happens in IC, I'm not confident how far that'll stick.


Anyway... one comic I did read recently is Straczynski's Thor, and while I enjoyed it I couldn't shake the feeling that I was basically reading an inferior version of Neil Gaiman's Eternals.

It's not the first time I've had the feeling reading Straczynski either - I said earlier in the topic that I read Silver Surfer: Requiem thinking Gaiman could have done it better.
I guess it's just the vibe he gives me - going for the slightly mythic air but just not being as good as the master. It's harsh to compare a perfectly good writer to probably the best I've read at that sort of thing, but it just happens.

[Illuyankas]

OK, is there anyone who doesn't think Brand New Day is one of the worst ideas ever? Just being curious in case any of you suddenly lost your sense of taste in a tragic Liefield accident.

[mxlm]

Okay kids, point to me to worthwhile sites that review comics, please please please. I heart The X-Axis, but that's really all I've got. Newsarama and Comic Book Resources don't do it for me.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Do they still Make Sgt. Rock comics? I thought those were pretty cool when I was little. Running around, being all tough, killing nazis and such. Fun times.

[stone monkey]

Sgt Rock is actually part of DC Universe continuity. I can't recall one being published in the last year; but iirc a few years ago they got Robert Kanigher (Rock's creator) to do a story.

As for comic reviews - I'm not especially trusting of them myself, preferring to make up my own mind; but Rack Raids aren't too annoying. If you just want to chat about comics with a bunch of not especially sensible adults who try not to take them too seriously (and sometimes fail in this); you could join me (and diverse others) over at I Love Comics

I am in no way a Spider-man fan but Brand New Day sounds hideous - the rumour I read somewhere is that JMS wanted his name taken off it.

[polishgenius]

I read that in an IGN interview with him (though I can't find it now - may not have been IGN actually but I can't remember where it was if not), apparently Quesada had to do some serious persuading to get him to leave it.

[wolf_2099]

polishgenius;336988 said:

I read that in an IGN interview with him (though I can't find it now - may not have been IGN actually but I can't remember where it was if not), apparently Quesada had to do some serious persuading to get him to leave it.

Yeah, JMS knew it was shit, and wanted off the project.

I've heard rumors he either got his contract threatened, or a huge chunk of money, or both.

[Dark Wolf]

I've finished "Tales from the Crypt, volume 1" and I really liked it. It is a funny and ironic read. I'm certainly looking forward to read some more of this titles.

[stone monkey]

I've just finished reading the complete collected Bone; which was far more fun and far darker than I was expecting it to be. It served as a means of surprising my work colleagues; who were a little non-plussed to see me carting around a 1400 page comic book.

[polishgenius]

That book confuses people. It's bigger than most fantasy brick novels, and then it's a comic, and then it looks like the moomins or something.
And then when you read it, as you say, it's got a plot that seems completely at odds with the art style (and initial humour).

I like it, a lot.

[Morgoth]

yeah. Bone is brilliant. No doutb about it

[Cougar]

OK so I'm reading Civil War, I don't normally bother reading graphic novels or big comics as my girlfriend snorted when she saw it but I'm really enjoying it so far.

What do people think, recommend something else I might enjoy if I liked this please.

[stone monkey]

So. Superhero stuff.

If you liked Civil War (which was a fuckup of astonishing proportions if you ask me, but there you go) you might like The Ultimates; same writer, better scripts, better artist, much more fun. There are four trades available at the moment and For The Sake of Humanity, Do Not Read Beyond That Point! as Utimates 3 is an abomination and therefore Has Not Happened

The original comic book series of Wanted also might have some interest for you. Misanthropy of the highest order combined with JG Jones lovely pictures.


Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men is now complete and available in trades ( I have them) and it's ace. Although I may never forgive him for what he's done to Kitty Pryde...

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman is a joy to behold on at least twenty different levels. And even if you only appreciate it on the level of great stories beautifully told then you'll have a blast. There's one trade at the moment and whenever issue 12 of the floppies shows (hopefully this year *fingers crossed*) the other trade is sure to follow fairly quickly.

Morrison and Jones Marvel Boy, whilst getting on a bit now, is well worth reading too. As it kicked off the whole "Ultimates" style storytelling several years before Marvel actually got the idea...

There's also Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary. There's a bunch of trades out there and rumour has it that Cassaday is already at work on the final issue's art.

You could also have a look at Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp's Black Summer. The trades are due out soon as the floppies finished about a month ago. Ryp's art is astonishing and very much reminds me (and a bunch of other people) of Geof Darrow's work. The plot is your standard Warren Ellis rant about stuff, which kicks off when a superhuman vigilante decides to off the President of the USA and his cabinet for war crimes. Hilarity ensues, obviously:rolleyes: