[Tsundoku]

Interesting and fun - but long - article.

http://www.news.com....r-1225855179269

My favourites being ...

"26. The word "sex" was hidden on almost every page of an X-Men comic. In New X-Men No. 118 It surreptitiously appears in hair strands, bottles of whisky, a hedge, a puddle, tree branches, protest signs and, thanks to some conveniently placed garden tools, a lawn. The book's artist, Ethan Van Sciver, has said that he scattered the word throughout the book because Marvel was annoying him at the time and he thought that it would be fun to inject a little mischief into his work. Weirdly, this was the sort of activity that the psychologist Fredric Wertham railed hysterically against in the '50s. He thought that comics were corrupting America's youth, with their overt and covert depictions of sex and drugs, and his book on the subject, Seduction of the Innocent, led to Senate hearings and a strict moral code being imposed on the comic industry.

27. Batman has fought crime with some of literature's greatest heroes, from Superman and Spider-man to Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan, but he's also shared his Batmobile with the dregs. His worst team-up has to be with Scooby-Doo, in the mentally scarring 1972 cartoon Scooby-Doo Meets Batman - Holy Zoinks Batman!"

This post has been edited by Sombra: 30 April 2010 - 08:52 PM

[Abyss]

Am reading FABLES and this series is pure brilliant win.
Glad i waited this long because it is SO MUCH fun to read in big chunks.

- Abyss, purely fictional.

[wolf_2099]

Abyss, on 12 May 2010 - 05:47 PM, said:

Am reading FABLES and this series is pure brilliant win.
Glad i waited this long because it is SO MUCH fun to read in big chunks.

- Abyss, purely fictional.

The only downside is the series really takes a dive after the final war with the Emperor, the stories seemed to meander and not really go anywhere.

[Abyss]

wolf_2099, on 12 May 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

Abyss, on 12 May 2010 - 05:47 PM, said:

Am reading FABLES and this series is pure brilliant win.
Glad i waited this long because it is SO MUCH fun to read in big chunks.

- Abyss, purely fictional.

The only downside is the series really takes a dive after the final war with the Emperor, the stories seemed to meander and not really go anywhere.

be that as it may i'm partway through the last bit of the war and FNCK YEAH!


- Abyss, wants that ship.

[polishgenius]

The other day I was in the comic shop and ended up with a few impulse buys:


Cairo by G Willow Wilson and MK Perker. It's a contemporary fable-type thing set in... well, Cairo, obviously. It's good.

The Wizard's Story by Kurt Busiek, about an evil Wizard who isn't really evil. Aimed squarely at kids but sweet and with nice art by David T. Wenzel


The first World's End volumes of The Authority and Wildcats. The Authority one is pretty good, the Wildcats not so much. Christos Gage is a capable writer hamstrung by his insistence on pointless fights between heroes all the time, and Googe is an artist I really rate who doesn't suit the post-apocalyptic setting at all. The art in The Authority makes everything seem ruined, whereas Googe's merely looks a bit scuffed.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

wolf_2099, on 12 May 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

Abyss, on 12 May 2010 - 05:47 PM, said:

Am reading FABLES and this series is pure brilliant win.
Glad i waited this long because it is SO MUCH fun to read in big chunks.

- Abyss, purely fictional.

The only downside is the series really takes a dive after the final war with the Emperor, the stories seemed to meander and not really go anywhere.

I think that it's getting better, slowly. The calm before the dark storm, if you get my drift.

[RodeoRanch]

Love, love FABLES.


I just finished Captain America Omnibus, Vol. 1.

Hot damn, it was just fantastic.

[Abyss]

Whisper, on 20 May 2010 - 02:07 AM, said:

wolf_2099, on 12 May 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

Abyss, on 12 May 2010 - 05:47 PM, said:

Am reading FABLES and this series is pure brilliant win.
Glad i waited this long because it is SO MUCH fun to read in big chunks.

- Abyss, purely fictional.

The only downside is the series really takes a dive after the final war with the Emperor, the stories seemed to meander and not really go anywhere.

I think that it's getting better, slowly. The calm before the dark storm, if you get my drift.

RodeoRanch, on 20 May 2010 - 03:03 AM, said:

Love, love FABLES.
...

From series start to end of the Advesary storyline in tpb bk 10 = brilliant, Deserves every Eisner it got. Great characters and character development, intelligent storytelling. Very clever uses of the world set up in the stories. Great twists. I can't say enough good about this first part of the series.

Start of the 'Dark' storyline bk 11. Okay. I'm still in. Waiting to see what happens next.

The Great Fables Crossover. Bk 12. Poor. At times crap. Meandering, weak, pointless and trying to be clever filler. Filler masquerading as bad ideas. I never read the "Jack of Fables" book and based on this i am the opposite of tempted. FFS most of the characters spend three issues hiding behind a tree engaged in a pointless firefight. And no, dex ex machina does not become more clever when you tell people it's coming and are smug about it. Bigby going medieval on certain characters was the sole bright spot in this nine issue mess and that only because he did what i as a reader desperately wanted to do, which was gut the entire mess.


- Abyss, will wait a while before acquiring any further vols.

[stone monkey]

I'm currently reading Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy. For those of you who do the waiting for trades thing, this is one to get. It Morrison in form that's equally as good as We3 and Murphy's art is fantastic.

[blackzoid]

Just read Daredevil "Born Again" for the first time.
Amazing book, needs to be a film. Daredevil was an underrated film (especially the directors cut)

Looking forward to the Thanos Imperative.

[Abyss]

7 BROTHERS. Garth Ennis. John Woo. GENIUS. Not so much clever as straightforward in yo face shooty stabby. Any series that has the Big Bad state that he's going to use Planet Earth as a condom is automatic win even before the crazy martial arts, great art, and sheer big Hollywood fun in graphic novel format. I'm reminded of the sheer over-the-top that Ellis pulled off on the first 12 issues of THE AUTHORITY... not quite as 'big screen' from the start, but great fun buildling to a big ass finish.

I have the second tpb standing by. I was a bit ill to see Ben Raab was involved in vol 2, but hope, it springs eternal...

- Abyss, notes any book that starts with a pimp being kicked in the nads and ends with massive big magic sploody just must needs be read.

[stone monkey]

Just a note to say that The Return of Bruce Wayne is absolutely fucking brilliant! Morrison is definitely channelling his All-Star Superman work, but in relation to Batman, there. Those of you with an eye on the trade should really look at picking that one up when it comes out...

[RodeoRanch]

I just finished The Ultimates Omnibus. Really enjoyed it.

Anybody ever read Absolute DC: The New Frontier?

It looks pretty interesting and I'm a sucker for old school DC stuff.

[stone monkey]

I've got The New Frontier (not in the Absolute format as I'm not made of money) and it is very good. It's a reimagining of the origin of the JLA set just before their first official appearance (continuity wise, that is) but also set in a more realistic version of the early 60s. I wouldn't say it's really old school.

Darwyn Cooke's stylised art is a perfect match for the period setting and his script has something to say about the idealised portrayal of the past.

[polishgenius]

I don't know if this quite fits this thread, but I don't see why it wouldn't... I want another webcomic to read so I thought I'd see what you people think of them and see what comes up. Best starting point, I suppose, is listing my favourites (I'm sure most of you know some or all of these but hey):



Story driven webcomics:

I don't think Freakangels needs any introduction to you folk. But if you don't already read it, it's the post-apocalypse by Warren Ellis. So read it.

Gunnerkrigg Court - ignore that the art looks like it's for teenage girls, this is a masterpiece of slow-burn mystery storytelling. It makes Lost look positively forthcoming but unlike that always feels in control of what it's doing. It can get a bit frustrating waiting for him to develop it reading it in publishing time, but it works till you catch up and reading it back, and unlike many others he never misses a (thrice-weekly) update.

Order of the Stick is, to start, an affectionate D&D mick-take but quickly becomes a brilliant exponent of fourth-wall battering meta-humour - and it has a good plot, too.

Humour driven webcomics:

Questionable Content is a pop-culture-referencing slightly-offbeat slice-of-life. There's not really a lot to say about it but it's just great. The art at the start is a bit clunky but evolves well.

I'm sure y'all know xkcd.

I don't think Daisy Owl gets enough love... it's basically a series of vignettes or short stories of odballness, drawn really well. Sometimes updates very slowly but it's not particularly a story comic (there are occasional hints of forward movement but it's so very not the point) so it's not that frustrating.

I no longer like Diesel Sweeties very much but on the recommendation of Warren Ellis it was what got me into webcomics in the first place, and it used to be ace, so have a link.

So basically, yeah, discuss webcomics a bit.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 05 June 2010 - 06:08 PM

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I do have Freakangels, OOTS, QC, xkcd on standby for compulsive update-checking.

I just started reading Scott Pilgrim, I downloaded it last week, but haven't found the time to finish it.

Also read Goats but they've halted updates. Sad. Another update-anemic, but excellent comic is Hero. It's watercolor, with all of the dialogue in the mouseover text.

This post has been edited by Adjutant Stormy: 05 June 2010 - 06:35 PM

[Illuyankas]

DM of the Rings and Darths and Droids are both excellent webcomics if you've any knowledge of nerding and still pretty good if you only have the basic NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDS idea.

[Coco with marshmallows]

second Illy's recommendations ,

I'd also add:

Irregular webcomic, which is in fact very regular,

and Sinfest, which has humour that reminds me a great deal of calvin and hobbes, though with more swearing.

[polishgenius]

I couldn't get into Sinfest for some reason, but that post did result in me spending all morning reading Calvin & Hobbes.


I've never been able to get into Darths and Droids or DM of the Rings, both funny but I can only take small doses at a time (same went for sinfest when I tried just now). Not sure why it is.


Since my post I've read Sin Titulo but it's sadly very slow to update, because of other commitments from the author (99 comics in three years). Good though. Apparently he was inspired by Lost to write a mindfuck mystery comic, and it works well enough, though it's no Gunnerkrigg Court in that aspect so far.


Also read the first chapter of The Meek which is promising. Warning, NSFW, due to the innocent woodland girl being naked for most of it. Apparently this stops after the first chapter though, and it's not exactly titillation material or anything.


That Hero is good, though all the alt-text means it's not a 'devour whole chunks in one sitting' type to catch up with. But cheers for the link, I think I'll be following it up.

[Illuyankas]

Oh, and if you want the personification of Not Work Safe, there's Oglaf. The NSFWness of this comic cannot be stated enough.

This post has been edited by Illuyankas: 06 June 2010 - 08:01 PM