[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 10 July 2014 - 04:02 PM, said:

Ellis is brilliant. The ONLY problem seems to be where publishers or imprints allow him to start telling a story, only to see it either get cancelled mid-story, or it just kind of disappears off the radar. I mean the guy has a WHOLE section of his FAQ dedicated to the question: What happened to *insert comic title here*? (Note: That's not on him....it's on those who commission his work and then stifle it midway through)

Let's be fair, most of the stopped or postponed series don't really have anything to do with the commisioning folk - Desolation Jones, Listener and Fell were killed by his computers blowing up, with Fell further affected by Ben Templesmith's own issues, whatever they were. Similar happened with Planetary, which had to be drastically shortened because Ellis had to pause writing for personal reasons, iirc, and in the meantime John Cassaday got so popular and in-demand that he could no longer commit to the full thing.

A lot of his work is very short anyway, and that seems to be by design- Ellis comes off very much like someone who doesn't necessarily want to commit to long projects anymore.

[Studlock]

The only Ellis project I can think of that went for a longish run is Transmetropolitan, other than that I can't think of one that went over 20 issues (and not all of it is golden either, less we forget his god awful Astonishing X-Men run). Personally I'm glad he's moving away from transhuman themes to focuses more so on weird fiction (if his last two projects are any sign, that being Moon Knight, and Trees). It's a nice change of pace.

[QuickTidal]

Studlock, on 20 July 2014 - 12:16 PM, said:

The only Ellis project I can think of that went for a longish run is Transmetropolitan, other than that I can't think of one that went over 20 issues (and not all of it is golden either, less we forget his god awful Astonishing X-Men run). Personally I'm glad he's moving away from transhuman themes to focuses more so on weird fiction (if his last two projects are any sign, that being Moon Knight, and Trees). It's a nice change of pace.

I absolutely agree. His growth as a writer into the weird fiction category is just so much more intriguing than his older Superhero stuff. His two novels are batshit insane, and excellent.

[polishgenius]

I'd disagree that his new stuff is in itself any more intriguing than his old stuff, be it superheroes or transhumanism or whatever, but (as for any writer), the more different directions he stretches himself in, the better. I mean, some of my favourite work of his is on the sadly shortened Fell, and that was just pure noir detective fiction.


It is particularly clear that he's gotten quite bored of writing superheroes, although he's still capable of writing gems when he's given something good to work with, like Thunderbolts a coupla years back. Part of it I think is that he's constrained by the needs of the status quo - he's at his best when he can throw some proper team and external politics at his heroes and really mess them around, and it's more difficult to do that in the main Marvel (and DC) 'verse, where everything has to revert eventually.

[Studlock]

I don't think either his older stuff is better than his newer, I'm just in a philosophically disagreement with transhumanism (which many of his superhero stories touch upon, he is every good at bending his chosen themes to suit the setting I think) and was constantly uncomfortable while meditating on the larger ideas brought up by his work. I am more comfortable with weird fiction, perhaps because it accepts the limitations of human thought and the existence of the unknown whereas many tranhumanism arguments come across to me as cult-like devotion to improving humanity through technological integration. It's presented as an easy fix, and I view such fixes with great distrust. Of course I believe WE present a more complex picture which is why I continue to read his work. It's important to engage with viewpoints you disagree with.

This is of course not a value judgement of his body of work, though I do believe Moon Knight is some of his best stuff in a long while, but rather a personal interpretation of his body of work.

This post has been edited by Studlock: 20 July 2014 - 03:44 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

Cross-posting this in the ebooks thread as well...

HumbleBundle is doing a Transformers e-comics bundle for the next 5+ days. $15 gets you everything: 126 issues in 14 volumes. I paid $15 for the dead tree version of More Than Meets The Eye Volume 1, and it alone is worth every cent. Here's a helpful guide to what you can get:

Quote

• From Marvel's G1 continuity:
  
  • The original 1984 comic: issues 1-2, 4-8, 10-50 (unfortunately, issues 3 and 9 are left out, presumably for various copyright issues that have plagued reprints in the past)
    
  • 2012 continuation "Regeneration One": issues 80.5, 81-85 (the original series ended with #80)
  
  
• From IDW's ongoing continuity:
  
  • Spotlight issues for Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, and Ultra Magnus
    
  • All Hail Megatron: issues 1-16 plus related Spotlights (Blurr, Jazz, Drift, Cliffjumper, and Metroplex)
    
  • 2010 ongoing: issues 1-6
    
  • Autocracy: issues 1-12
    
  • More Than Meets the Eye: issues 1-8 (plus "Death of Optimus Prime" one-shot)
    
  • Robots in Disguise: issues 1-9
  
  
• Fall of Cybertron (game) prequel comic: issues 1-6
  
• Prime (cartoon) tie-in comic "Rage of the Dinobots": issues 1-4

I highly recommend the whole package just to get the two volumes each of More Than Meets The Eye (which is phenomenal) and Robots In Disguise (which would probably be the best TF comic ever if MTMTE didn't exist.)

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 31 July 2014 - 08:56 PM

[Abyss]

SAGA vol 3.

SO GOOD!

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 06 August 2014 - 03:55 PM, said:

SAGA vol 3.

SO GOOD!

I'm sorry. Not sorry.

SO good.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 06 August 2014 - 04:40 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 August 2014 - 03:55 PM, said:

SAGA vol 3.

SO GOOD!

I'm sorry.

...

[Abyss]

... and while i'm castigating you QT, i also blame you for RAT QUEENS vol 1 sitting loud and proud atop my now growing GNTRP waiting with thinly disguised eagerness for when i finish my latest Marvel Meth binge.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 11 August 2014 - 02:17 PM, said:

... and while i'm castigating you QT, i also blame you for RAT QUEENS vol 1 sitting loud and proud atop my now growing GNTRP waiting with thinly disguised eagerness for when i finish my latest Marvel Meth binge.

Hey man, I actually had to put RAT QUEENS into my pull list, so I'm now spending money on floppies.

We need to blame whomever first mentioned it.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 11 August 2014 - 02:59 PM, said:

Abyss, on 11 August 2014 - 02:17 PM, said:

... and while i'm castigating you QT, i also blame you for RAT QUEENS vol 1 sitting loud and proud atop my now growing GNTRP waiting with thinly disguised eagerness for when i finish my latest Marvel Meth binge.

Hey man, I actually had to put RAT QUEENS into my pull list, so I'm now spending money on floppies.

We need to blame whomever first mentioned it.

*backreads*

STORMCAT WE'D LIKE A WORD WITH YOU!!!

[Illuyankas]

Safe!

[Stormcat]

So very NOT sorry! Lol. Rat Queens is totally kick ass awesome! I also added it to my pull list and look forward to meeting the artists at the LB Comicon.

[QuickTidal]

WAYWARD by Jim Zub...might just have it in it to be the next SAGA. Half Japanese Half Irish girl moves to Tokyo with her mother and begins to see and interact with local Yokai (spirits, monsters) as the walls between realms begin to fall apart, and she gets help from a halfing. REALLY great stuff so far. If you like SKULLKICKERS, you'll dig WAYWARD.

[Abyss]

Stormcat, on 12 August 2014 - 08:46 PM, said:

So very NOT sorry! Lol. Rat Queens is totally kick ass awesome! I also added it to my pull list and look forward to meeting the artists at the LB Comicon.

Finally got around to reading this.

SO MUCH FUN!

I think i want to marry Betty.
I don't care that she doesn't swing my way, i just want to follow her around a lot.

[QuickTidal]

At FanExpo on the weekend (in instances where I wasn't photo-oping with Matt Smith or getting his autograph *gleeee*) I trawled the back bins and pre-collected sets, and found the following.

BATGIRL VOL 3. Issues #1-24 which is Stephanie Brown's entire run as the character (pre-Nu52 reboot that put Babs back into the cowl) in floppies...collected for $35 which is an utterly unbeatable price. It's a great run.

Peter David and Pop Mhan's SPYBOY almost in its entirety (missing only two issues in the 17issue run) for $12. Have always wanted to read it, and never gotten the chance.

Got Volumes 2, 3 and 4 of Jim Zub & Ed Hwang & Misty Coates SKULLKICKERS...all of which are utterly brilliant and everyone should be reading it. Especially because it finishes up with the next/last 5th volume.

[Stormcat]

Quote

Finally got around to reading this.

SO MUCH FUN!

I think i want to marry Betty.
I don't care that she doesn't swing my way, i just want to follow her around a lot.

I had Betty as my facebook pic for awhile. I love me some Betty. I think I am going to Cosplay Hannah at the Comicon though. I am too tall to do Betty right.

Good new is that Vol 2 is finally up for pre-order. So is Saga Vol 4

http://www.amazon.co...2&pf_rd_i=typ01

[QuickTidal]

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE issue #3...

Yeah, I was on the fence with this series after issue 2, issue 3 pushed me over...and I might bail it off my pull list. It's really weird and focusing on shit no one cares about. It's full of blood, and more cursing than you can shake a stick at, but it's almost like it's being done for shock value...and it's just jarring. I'm not a prude, but it feels like it's being done just because it's an adult comic instead of serving story.

[Stormcat]

I picked up the first THE WICKED + THE DIVINE because the comic book store had it for 99 cents. But yeah. The third issue was not very good. I kind of liked the concept of Gods and Goddesses coming back and being modern but I am not a fan of how some of them are portrayed..