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DemonHellSpawn
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:06 am
Posts: 597
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:03 pm 
 

I'm a Marvel, so I beg to differ.
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Onikage
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:28 am
Posts: 103
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:22 pm 
 

I dislike pretty much all Superhero comics, unless the Punisher : Frank Castle counts as a super hero comic. I also like The Boys, which takes place in a world where all superheroes are self-centered assholes, sociopaths, perverts and drug users. It's from the same person who made Preacher, I highly recommend it.

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thomash
Metal Philosopher

Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:31 pm
Posts: 1713
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:19 am 
 

I'm all about Batman. Hence, most of my purchases are DC, although I cannot stand the superheroes in that canon outside of the Bat-family. I don't even like many of the characters in the Bat-family. Recently, I've been reading Batman, Batman: Detective Comics, Batman and Robin and Jonah Hex, which sort of counts of late since the All-Star Western series has seen Jonah Hex visit Gotham in his own time.

Other than that, I tend to be more of a Marvel guy. I enjoy Punisher, Thor, Deadpool, and Journey into Mystery quite a bit. Characters like Spider-Man can sometimes be a bit smarmy for me. I find that I generally like characters who are a bit more of anti-heroes, with the exception of Thor, because he's motherfucking Thor.

I also have been trying to catch up with The Walking Dead. Compendium One was awesome so I may start picking up the weeklies when they get to that point (which I think is pretty soon).

Can't go wrong with the Hellboy stuff, either. A lot of Dark Horse comics are really good, in fact. I'm always at least tempted by the R. E. Howard stuff that they print, although I don't always pick it up.

As far as TPBs go, I don't have a particularly good collection. Mostly obligatory Batman-related stuff. I do have Watchmen, which is of course an amazing comic, and the first few Preacher collections but what I really need to get my hands on is all the Sandman stuff.

As far as authors go, I find that I'm almost uniformly impressed with J. Michael Straczynski, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Paul Dini, and Jeph Loeb. Frank Miller can be very hit-or-miss, although his good stuff is fantastic. Finally, Grant Morrison actually... kinda sucks. I don't understand why they've let him write so much Batman.

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SymposiumOfSickness
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:26 am
Posts: 157
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 3:30 am 
 

thomash wrote:
Grant Morrison actually sucks.


Agree. His recent run on Batman with him supposedly dying but Batman actually being sent back through time to prehistoric Earth, is without a doubt, one of the worst Batman storylines of all time. That's saying a lot too considering Batman has had some pretty fucking stupid storylines. I honestly can't think of a single comic book fan that actually liked it. There may be some but they are few and far between. I would say it's on par with One More Day for shitty comic storylines. People like to rip on Jeph Loeb for writing dumb shallow storylines but at least his stories are generally entertaining, make some semblance of sense, and aren't utterly ridiculous. Morrison completely failed on all counts with his Batman run. It wasn't entertaining, it was stupid, and was utterly ridiculous. I like A Serious House on Serious Earth but I'm not sure what he was thinking with his recent Batman crap.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 1792
Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 6:05 pm 
 

Grant Morrison did some decent work on JLA, and I love the Invisibles. But yeah, his Batman writing sucks quite a bit of ass. We3 was cool too, though.

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InfektedBlut
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:21 am
Posts: 33
Location: Belgium
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:47 am 
 

Last one I read was Reinhard Kleist's graphic novel Cash; I see a darkness. It's pretty good! Too bad I had to read it in Dutch - my town's library doesn't have the English version. Luckily they didn't translate the lyrics as well. (I once went to a Johnny Cash tribute show in which one of the artists "translated" the 'Sue' in A Boy Named Sue to 'Marianne'... /puke)

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~Guest 98976
Metal Pounder

Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:08 pm
Posts: 8000
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:00 am 
 

Can anybody recommend some hard science fiction graphic novels? I don't have any examples or standards, so I'm pretty much a blank slate.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:04 pm 
 

Hmmm...

Every sci-fi comic I've read was soft as porridge (the way I like it). I can't think of any at all. :|

I think that artist's ability to draw fantastic-looking places and things puts a lot of pressure on the author to fudge things in a way text the writer wrote himself might not. Besides which, in a lot of hard scifi everything is extremely drab (particularly in regard to space travel) and doesn't translate well to comics.

Hard sci-fi is better served by non-visual media, I think. All the great hard sci-fi I've enjoyed was in literary form.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:47 am 
 

I Killed Adolf Hitler: Truly excellent. A short, light, but seriously engaging read with minimal text and brilliant flow. This is the first thing I've read by Jason and based on this I have determined him to be a master of the comic craft. It's a clever story, but what makes this great is how fluidly every aesthetic and artistic choice points to a very central talking point: the simple but fascinating character designs, the austere but cheerfully colorful backgrounds, the clean lines, the lack of shading and shadows, the lack of facial expressions, and lack of close up detail. There's a complete lack of humanity throughout. Nobody, even the scientist who dutifully expends his life engineering the scheme to assassinate Hitler, displays any moral outrage over who Hitler is and what he does. The rare sentimentality that crops up is consistently revealed to be completely mechanical. This is almost as brilliant a take down of the human condition as Star Trek: Voyager. A+

The Adventures Of Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets: Highly entertaining classic pulp-action/comedy replete with the aggressively utilitarian designs of early serials. Retrospect lends a gently satirical overtone which the absurdity of the action scenes and killer comedic timing cement. Character designs express the entirety of the characters in a way unique to the medium, the style, and the genre where even the disparaging stereotypes willfully being invoked are softened into elegant cartoon caricatures which facilitates the exposition of human character purely through action. The over-the-top narration from the dog also slays me. "By Trotsky!" A+

Pyongyang: Decent but uninspiring art work at a point just slightly less realistically proportioned than is to my taste. The city itself is the most interesting character with every vista and minute detail made fascinating by virtue of the realities and myths they represent. In an unfortunate parallel to 1984, which is used as a framing device early on, the author contrasts himself with the North Koreans with disingenuously self-depreciating use of their unaffected perspectives while employing the same detached tone applied to his observations of the environment itself. There is also a casual exultation in the dehumanization of the North Koreans as recompense for the hypocrisy of the regime though I think there is some metatextualal commentary in the slightly too humorous and slightly too disparaging tone. Overall, the commentary is pretty good with special interest given to as much pointed minutia as possible and he's pretty good about catching the surrealities of the city and explaining their effect with with some really funny references. The effect of slowly losing the wry aspect of his commentary as propaganda is layered on heavier in the latter parts is great and pulls the focus back very well to make the obvious but necessary conclusions. Fascinating and depressing stuff. A+

zzzenith.com: Intentional parody of gritty postmodern superheroes or a prophetic piece of recovered history or a metatextual commentary on gritty parody un-ironically picking up the grittiness of that which it parodies or a cry of the super heroic genre's transcendence beyond parody and grit? For something that's a third the size of a normal issue it's pretty impressive that it's probably the latter. Now I have about a zillion Zenith comics to look into... A+

Man, I should stop reading so much great stuff and read a crappy Avengers or dada comic to balance this out...

Coming soon (maybe): RoboCop, Logan's Run, Buck Rogers...

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TheOldOne
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:05 pm
Posts: 755
Location: Stalling at the present time
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:47 pm 
 

My interest in comics largely begins and ends with The Adventures Of Tintin and the Asterix and Obelix comics, which are godly.
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DemonHellSpawn
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:06 am
Posts: 597
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 10:00 pm 
 

I grew up with the Tintin books, I've yet to see the movie though. It's based on the story about the search for the wreck of the Unicorn, isn't it?
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Morrigan
Crone of War

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
Posts: 10528
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 10:54 pm 
 

TheOldOne wrote:
the Asterix and Obelix comics

:headbang:

All the Goscinny ones are great, but my favourite Asterix books are probably: Le tour de Gaule (always makes me hungry reading it...), Astérix et Cléopâtre (of course), Astérix Légionnaire, Le Bouclier Arverne, Astérix et le Chaudron, La Zizanie, Le Devin (anti-woo FTW!), La Grande Traversée (American Indians AND vikings? hell yes!), and L'Odyssée d'Astérix (the only truly good one by Uderzo alone).

DemonHellSpawn wrote:
I grew up with the Tintin books, I've yet to see the movie though. It's based on the story about the search for the wreck of the Unicorn, isn't it?

It's apparently a mix of the plot of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure. Not sure how the first fits in with the other two, as I haven't seen the movie, but the other two are among my favourite Tintin adventures, so it should be a fun movie, hopefully.
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waiguoren
Veteran

Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:23 am
Posts: 2741
Location: Umeå, Sweden
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:07 pm 
 

Morrigan wrote:
TheOldOne wrote:
the Asterix and Obelix comics

:headbang:

All the Goscinny ones are great, but my favourite Asterix books are probably: Le tour de Gaule (always makes me hungry reading it...), Astérix et Cléopâtre (of course), Astérix Légionnaire, Le Bouclier Arverne, Astérix et le Chaudron, La Zizanie, Le Devin (anti-woo FTW!), La Grande Traversée (American Indians AND vikings? hell yes!), and L'Odyssée d'Astérix (the only truly good one by Uderzo alone).


By Toutatis! By Belenos! Paf! HUGE Asterix fan here, read/own them all, only in English of course but Anthea Bell (same name as one of my cousins actually) did a great job with translation from French to English. The library in my town when I was a kid in South Africa had a bunch of Asterix and TinTin comics, so that's how I got into it. The 'PAF!' when punching Romans was always hilarious, as back home calling someone a paf is the same as calling them a poof/poofter/fag.

And John Of The Sun Of Light, glad you checked out Pyongyang, I thought the art captured Norkland quite well, especially compared to photos I've seen of the place.

Now, I own all the Vertigo issues back home (think it was originally a Marvel print but DC bought the rights to it or something) - anyhoo, I just downloaded Moonshadow as I'd like to read it again as it's been about a decade but from what I remember it was incredibly dreamy/trippy with great art. I'll just assume someone else here has read it and can provide more details as mine are sketchy at the moment but I do recall it being very good and most recommendation-worthy:

http://www.amazon.com/Compleat-Moonshad ... 1563893436
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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:15 pm 
 

There's one thing I forgot to mention about Pyongyang, which is that while the character designs are all cartoony, the imagery of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are all realistically proportioned, which reflects the unrealistic propaganda about them. It's a neat effect, the real people are portrayed as unreal and the unreal people as real. Clever... I didn't mention it before because to be honest I don't think it was intentional, rather he just drew their portraits as they looked. :P

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kingnuuuur
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:35 pm
Posts: 2325
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:25 pm 
 

Morrigan wrote:
Le tour de Gaule (always makes me hungry reading it...)

Pretty sure I first discovered salade niçoise in that book. :lol: Astérix chez les Belges also has a lot of food (and a surprise appearance by two famous Belgian comic book characters)

It's really tough to pick a favourite... but I'll add Les Douze Travaux d'Astérix, Astérix chez les Bretons, Astérix en Hispanie, and Obélix et Compagnie to the list.

As for animated films... Le Coup du Menhir (based on Le Devin), Les Douze Travaux d'Astérix, la Surprise de César, Astérix chez les Bretons, Astérix le Gaulois, Astérix et Cléopâtre are all simply epic! But I only have them on VHS. :cry:
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:55 am
Posts: 1516
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 7:35 am 
 

John_Sunlight wrote:

Pyongyang: Decent but uninspiring art work at a point just slightly less realistically proportioned than is to my taste. The city itself is the most interesting character with every vista and minute detail made fascinating by virtue of the realities and myths they represent. In an unfortunate parallel to 1984, which is used as a framing device early on, the author contrasts himself with the North Koreans with disingenuously self-depreciating use of their unaffected perspectives while employing the same detached tone applied to his observations of the environment itself. There is also a casual exultation in the dehumanization of the North Koreans as recompense for the hypocrisy of the regime though I think there is some metatextualal commentary in the slightly too humorous and slightly too disparaging tone. Overall, the commentary is pretty good with special interest given to as much pointed minutia as possible and he's pretty good about catching the surrealities of the city and explaining their effect with with some really funny references. The effect of slowly losing the wry aspect of his commentary as propaganda is layered on heavier in the latter parts is great and pulls the focus back very well to make the obvious but necessary conclusions. Fascinating and depressing stuff. A+


Yeah, I have a copy of this, its great. Actually a couple of my friends just got visas to visit NK and I was going to lend them my copy as "background reading". I dont know if they will go through with their trip given recent events though.

Another one I'll throw out there is "The Biologic show" by Al Colombia. Only 2 issues published in the mid 90's, although I did buy his sketchbook which was recently published. Really fucked up and disturbing stuff - according to interviews with him he was in and out of psychiatric care while he was working on it

Image
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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:28 pm 
 

No offense, but that looks terrible. :(

That is, it "looks" good artwise, but I've read enough 90's alternative comix to know that the darker and/or edgier they are the less joy I'm apt to derive from it...

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BummerHigh
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:14 pm
Posts: 114
Location: Denmark
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:17 pm 
 

I've never really gotten into the DC and Marvel superhero comics. I've read Tales from the Crypt, Weird Tales and little of the Heavy Metal magazines. I'm planning to check out The Walking Dead comic books. Though a friend and I are planning to some comics of our own soon. Some weird occult sci-fi stuff.

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Pfuntner
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:33 pm
Posts: 1058
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 3:04 pm 
 

My folks got me the 3rd and 4th volumes of the Sandman series for Christmas. I've really dug this series so far. I was initially worried because Neil Gaiman can be incredibly hit (Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader) or miss (Neverwhere), but he totally delivers with this one.

I started reading Habibi by Craig Thompson. It's pretty cool, but not as intense as Blankets was. I'll see how I feel when I'm finished though.
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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:42 pm 
 

Finally got around to reading the Thanos Imperative. Excellent stuff. Love anything involving Thanos, really. He's been lucky to have a whole bunch of talented fuckers work on him, especially his daddy Jim Starlin. All that old 'Infinity' shit is amazing.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:19 pm 
 

Any of the Guardians of the Galaxy characters get involved in that?

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:56 pm 
 

Heavily. They make it possible for Thanos to be involved in...the Thanos Imperative. That'll make sense once you read it. Are you a Guardians fan? I haven't read the books but from what I understand the plot threads left unfinished when the book was cancelled got a lot of closure with the Imperative story. I feel there was a lot of back reading I didn't do to fully appreciate the Imperative, but it will still a great story.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:03 pm 
 

I read the reboot Guardians of the Galaxy and thought it was one of the best comics I'd ever read. I'd love to look more into the "cosmic" stuff in marvelverse (has to be better than what's happening on marvelearth) but I don't know much of anything about it.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:37 pm 
 

If you wanna get a nice start to put things in perspective, I'd say go back to the Death of Captain Marvel arc, then read the Re-Birth of Thanos and then Infinity Gauntlet (supreme masterpiece as far as I'm concerned), Infinity War and Infinity Crusade. War is derivative but good, and Crusade is kinda boring (you can only milk a concept so many times before it becomes trite), but the Infinity stories really are peerless. I kinda fell off after that, and haven't kept up like I used to - but I know the 'Annihilation' 4-part arc really set the foundation for all the recent cosmic Marvel goings-on. I've been wanting to read War of Kings, which is another cosmic arc, but I've only really read the Imperative other than 'Annihilation'. I've also wanted to check out the Nova stuff. Imperative introduced me to Nova, really.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:42 pm 
 

I've heard all those arc titles before, so that seems like the proper way to go. I find these arc based writing a bit annoying, though, with all the tie ins. What happened to the days when you could just follow a nice continuing series and be all caught up? I can see why GotG got cancelled, it followed the old paradigm.

Anyway, thanks for the tips! I think I'll go with the Infinity stuff first and decided if I care to backtrack and whatever else I need to do to fill in the gaps. GotG was nice in that it was a basically self contained story in itself, with a logical starting point (though unfortunately a giant F U cliffhanger at the end).

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 10:57 am 
 

I agree, the arc-styled story building can get irritating, but I'm certain the point of that is ca$h moneyz. You've got a major arc with sixteen different tie-ins, plus supplemental material in various flagship titles. You've gotta spend your life savings just to properly follow a story, which is why I tend to wait for trades on things like that. It's easier and (sometimes) cheaper in the long run.

Lemme know what you think of the Infinity stuff. I'm really curious to hear your opinion on at least Gauntlet.

In later news, went up to the comic shop last night. I've got a pretty sweet deal with my local shop. I'm good friends with the manager there, so I give him guitar lessons and in return he gives me sweet (I'm talking over 50%) discounts. We do lessons in the store after hours, so I just do my shopping up there with nobody around to fucking bother me in the wee small hours of the morning. Last night, he was so excited to learn Metallica's Fade to Black that he not only discounted my shit but was throwing shit in for free! Picked up the two latest issues of the Aquaman re-boot, the last three Haunt issues (hoping this new creative team injects some life into a story quickly becoming stale), a slew of Lobo stuff, a Fantastic Four trade filled with classic Lee/Kirby tales, and an old indie comic called 'Him'. Got home too late last night to start any of it, but I'll report back here soon and let everyone know what the verdict is.

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Poe Ohlin
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:20 pm
Posts: 132
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:30 pm 
 

Onikage wrote:
I dislike pretty much all Superhero comics, unless the Punisher : Frank Castle counts as a super hero comic. I also like The Boys, which takes place in a world where all superheroes are self-centered assholes, sociopaths, perverts and drug users. It's from the same person who made Preacher, I highly recommend it.


I'd consider The Punisher more of an anti hero. His means of fighting for justice give him the traits for a villain, even though he is to a degree a hero. It's like the quandary that comes when discussing what Eric from The Crow is. He's fighting for justice, but doing it in a way that makes him seem like the villain.

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Twisted_Psychology
Metal freak

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Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:25 pm 
 

Any Sandman fans on here? I'm about halfway through Preludes and Nocturnes (just got it for Christmas) and it's quite enjoyable so far. I also find myself rereading sections of Watchmen and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth every now and then.
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Poe Ohlin
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Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:20 pm
Posts: 132
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:30 pm 
 

Twisted_Psychology wrote:
Any Sandman fans on here? I'm about halfway through Preludes and Nocturnes (just got it for Christmas) and it's quite enjoyable so far. I also find myself rereading sections of Watchmen and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth every now and then.


I'm a die hard Sandman fan. Good to hear that you enjoy it and don't worry, the series gets better. And you should try to read all of Arkham and Watchmen, as both are really good and classics in my opinion.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
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Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:30 pm 
 

Like Sandman a lot, though not to the cultish extent some people take it to. Also loved Morrison's 'Serious House...'. Watchmen is classic. Seems like your into the darker side of comix. If your not opposed to superheros (which I take it you're not considering the Batman and Watchmen books), also check out Alan Moore's 'Killing Joke' and Neil Gaiman's 'Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?' - both are imperative Batman reading. A lot of people get hyped up on the Frank Miller batshit, but I never really got into his take on Bats. Lemme know what you think of Preludes when you're finished with it. As you work your way through the Sandman series, you may want to eventually check out Mike Carey's Lucifer.

Just started reading Warren Ellis' 'Ocean'. So far so good. Very intriguing, though it's weird when he has to censor his writing because you can just feel his frustration.

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Twisted_Psychology
Metal freak

Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 8:22 pm
Posts: 6260
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 2:11 am 
 

TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah wrote:
Like Sandman a lot, though not to the cultish extent some people take it to. Also loved Morrison's 'Serious House...'. Watchmen is classic. Seems like your into the darker side of comix. If your not opposed to superheros (which I take it you're not considering the Batman and Watchmen books), also check out Alan Moore's 'Killing Joke' and Neil Gaiman's 'Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?' - both are imperative Batman reading. A lot of people get hyped up on the Frank Miller batshit, but I never really got into his take on Bats. Lemme know what you think of Preludes when you're finished with it. As you work your way through the Sandman series, you may want to eventually check out Mike Carey's Lucifer.

Just started reading Warren Ellis' 'Ocean'. So far so good. Very intriguing, though it's weird when he has to censor his writing because you can just feel his frustration.


I just finished it and my mind is pretty much blown. The story starts out a little slow but it has some really fantastic scenes, the exchange in Hell and every scene with Doctor Destiny sticks out in particular. I was already a big fan of Neil Gaiman's work (Mostly his fiction, American Gods and Anansi Boys are quite great and I have three of his novels left to read) so I'm quite curious to see how it'll go from here.

As for Batman, Arkham Asylum is a masterpiece and I've been meaning to read Killing Joke for years but haven't gotten around to it. I've also read The Dark Knight Returns but I may need to reread it at some point as it didn't quite grab me the first time around. Not even gonna bother with Frank Miller's later take on The Goddamn Batman/Crazy Steve...
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DullMetalJacket
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:20 am
Posts: 193
PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 5:13 am 
 

Has anyone played Comix Zone for the Sega Genesis? It's basically a platformer where you make your way through a badass comic book. Some really interesting artwork, and fun gameplay. The soundtrack's qaulity is debatable, as it's kind of vanilla sounding grunge on some shidi midi, but it doesn't ruin the game for me.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
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Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
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Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:42 am 
 

@ Twisted_Psychology:

I actually prefer Miller's 'goddamn Batman' stuff to the Dark Knight Returns/Strikes Again shit. Those two had decent stories, but the way he laid them out (with all the fucking television panels and news reporters, kinda like in the Spawn series) is so fucking aggravating I can hardly make it through. The 'goddamn Batman' stuff (All-Star Batman & Robin) is at least entertaining on a PURELY comedic level, though I think in a way his portrayal of early Batman could be more accurate than people would think. I mean really, if there was a guy doing all the shit Batman does, he would have to be something of a lunatic sociopath.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 1792
Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:49 am 
 

Anyone here read Haunt? It was a pretty good series until about issue eight, when it started getting pretty stale and too much like Spawn. They really could have exploited some fucked up psychological shit with the fact that Daniel is a priest and Kurt was a mercenary, but never did save for the initial handful of issues. But I just got my hands on the last two issues, and the new creative team they put on the book is incredible. Joe Casey is a much more frantic and creative writer, and while Nathan Fox is probably not the most skilled artist technically his style is fucking cool to look at and so atmospheric that it really lends a whole new dimension to the series. The first two issues they have done are pretty badass, and I'm really excited to see where they take it. That being said, the plot threads left hanging on issue 18 (the last issue with Capullo, McFarlane, etc.) have not been resolved yet, and I'm really, really hoping they don't fucking leave those open. That would just be shitty.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 2:13 pm 
 

Just read issue one of "Ocean" since it's been mentioned a few times. 3 pages of story, 20 pages of public transit. Gripping. :|

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 1792
Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 8:32 pm 
 

But duuuddeee...the ocean is filled with COFFINS!!!!!

I'm on issue four of Ocean and meh. It seems like sometimes Ellis is more concerned with having characters spew out hyperbolic, half-funny insults at each other rather than creating actual story.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:49 pm 
 

Yes. And it's the same character over and over. The same professional, detached, slightly smug, highly lethal and tragically uninteresting person over and over again. The same insults. The same government agencies. It's not just Ellis, but he's a terrible offender on this count.

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Schaus2
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:02 am
Posts: 47
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:28 am 
 

superhero comics are the shit! I mainly read Mavel stuff. Some DC stuff is good (Wildstorm!) . I read alot of TopCow/Image stuff too. Spawn is by far my favourite comic character, Ive read Spawn for as long as I can remember, I even like the awfully cheesy 1997 movie. The fact that Spawn #1 was released the day I was born is fucking awesome too.

I like some non-hero stuff, like some video game or movie graphic novels (i.e. 30 days of night). Walking dead is amazing, and Transmetropolitan is brilliant. I cant really pinpoint a favourite writer. I would say Miller, but hes done some pretty horrendous stuff to counterbalance the good. As far as art, Todd MacFarlane is probably my fav.

What has everyone been reading recently? I cant stop reading Uncanny X-force.

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TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 1792
Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:29 am 
 

@ Schaus2:

I miss McFarlane's art. He really was an incredible artist. Have you read Haunt? He did 'additional inks' on some of the books, whatever the fuck that means. I know he's preoccupied with his action figures and the new Spawn movie, but I really wish he would get back into comics for real.

Just started reading Shadow Hawk. Any thoughts on that title?

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Schaus2
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:02 am
Posts: 47
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 1:11 am 
 

@Mizawa:

I have the first few issues of Haunt in TPB. The art looks fantastic on some panels, but the story feels waaaay too rushed. You basically get a few issues of character build up in a few pages, and it pretty much led to nowhere (but Haunt's costume is kick-ass so I will continue to read).

The first series of ShadowHawk was... well, very depressing, the ending especially. Its not a bad thing, in fact, it really made you feel for the character. I havent read the 2nd series, and I hear ShadowHawk: Resurrection was terrible.

Ive been swimming through WildStorm's back catalog for a while now, and all I can say is that Midnighter is a fucking beast! Stongly recommend most WildStorm series.

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