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The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

Started by Small Man Big Horse, October 13, 2017, 05:58:40 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: kidsick5000 on February 20, 2019, 01:47:58 PM
I'm slightly ashamed to say that despite owning the first collection (James Jean covers) and a smattering of other issues for some time, it's taken the TV version of The Umbrella Academy to get me to read it properly- and I love it.

I think the show is brilliant, well worth the single binge, and the ending had me going back to the book to see how it held up.
Both brilliant, while being their own things. The TV show works for TV and brings in elements from across the first two series – Apocalypse Suite and Dallas.

Gerard Way has this nutso take on the X-Men that feels like it owes something to early 90s Deadline strips. There's amazing energy in Gabriel Ba's art.

Watch the show, get the first two books. Well worth it.

I'm pretty sure they're currently on sale on ComiXology - if you like your comics digitalised...
I'm loving the series too.
I was put off the comics cos of the whole Chemical Romance things.
It appears I was wrong.

Pingers

I'm not sure if this goes here or somewhere else, but I just took delivery of The Art of Princess Mononoke by Hiyao Miyazaki. It's stills and original concept art from the Studio Ghibli film and it's gorgeous.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Pingers on February 22, 2019, 08:40:02 PM
I'm not sure if this goes here or somewhere else

It's as good a place as any, though maybe we should have a thread for "Art of" books and artist sketchbooks.
I love them. I have a few Miyazake books, the sketches are marvellous. Seeing the thought process is fascinating.

Small Man Big Horse

Heroes In Crisis Issue 6 - A filler issue which is absolutely shit. I've no idea what's going on with Tom King, I was a big fan for a while but with this and the very dull run on Batman since the non-wedding, along with the disappointing ending to the otherwise fantastic Mr Miracle miniseries, I'm starting to lose interest in him.

D.R. & Quinch - I've been rereading these for an article I'm writing and it's less fun then I remembered. Some stories are still great, with Go To Hollywood being my favourite, but a few of them are a bit predictable and Moore running on autopilot. While the new one off that 2000AD published last year by Owen Johnson & Colin Bell is just plain rubbish.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on March 01, 2019, 05:33:59 PM
Heroes In Crisis Issue 6 - A filler issue which is absolutely shit. I've no idea what's going on with Tom King, I was a big fan for a while but with this and the very dull run on Batman since the non-wedding, along with the disappointing ending to the otherwise fantastic Mr Miracle miniseries, I'm starting to lose interest in him.

D.R. & Quinch - I've been rereading these for an article I'm writing and it's less fun then I remembered. Some stories are still great, with Go To Hollywood being my favourite, but a few of them are a bit predictable and Moore running on autopilot. While the new one off that 2000AD published last year by Owen Johnson & Colin Bell is just plain rubbish.

Thanks for the heads- up on Heroes In Crisis. I was tempted to pick it up but will wait for the compilation.

D.R. & Quinch - do you think you find it less fun because it's been the formula for much since. Or just that your tastes have become more sophisticated.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: kidsick5000 on March 04, 2019, 11:30:28 AM
Thanks for the heads- up on Heroes In Crisis. I was tempted to pick it up but will wait for the compilation.

D.R. & Quinch - do you think you find it less fun because it's been the formula for much since. Or just that your tastes have become more sophisticated.

Probably because it's become a bit more sophisticated, and I can see what Moore is ripping off paying homage to whereas as a teenager I wasn't aware of such things. A lot of it is really fun still, just a couple of stories felt predictable and repetitive.

Glebe

Just finished Batman: Dark Victory and Batman: RIP... I knew Dark Victory was set after the events of The Long Halloween, but I didn't realise quite how much of a 'sequel' it would turn out to be. Anyway, it's a worthy enough follow up... must get my hands on the story-related Catwoman: When in Rome, it seems to out of print so may have to give eBay a search.

Batman: RIP is, typically for a Grant Morrison story, fairly nutty... I wasn't familiar with some of the Batman stories and characters it was following up on, which made it a Bat-mite confusing in places, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.

Oh yeah, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest... issue #5 is out this month, it's been fairly wacky so far with 3D bits (as in The Black Dossier) a photostory, some Beanoesque fun and actually a pretty major twist in the last issue.

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on March 01, 2019, 05:33:59 PMD.R. & Quinch - I've been rereading these for an article I'm writing and it's less fun then I remembered. Some stories are still great, with Go To Hollywood being my favourite, but a few of them are a bit predictable and Moore running on autopilot. While the new one off that 2000AD published last year by Owen Johnson & Colin Bell is just plain rubbish.

I used to have a 'D.R. & Quinch Say Nuke Your Parents' T-shirt. A new one?! Without Moore? Crikey.

Custard

A very nice 'Leading Ladies Of DC' sale on at Comixology at the moment. I especially recommend Greg Rucka's Batwoman. One issue in, and I'm hooked

https://m.comixology.co.uk/comics-sale?list_id=29023

Bought some Birds Of Prey too, and might get on some Wonder Woman

kidsick5000

Quote from: Shameless Custard on March 08, 2019, 05:56:39 PM
A very nice 'Leading Ladies Of DC' sale on at Comixology at the moment. I especially recommend Greg Rucka's Batwoman. One issue in, and I'm hooked

https://m.comixology.co.uk/comics-sale?list_id=29023

If that's the one with the astounding JH Williams art, it is fantastic.

Small Man Big Horse

Black Hammer 8 - So three months after the last issue a new one comes out with an all new mystery beginning, even though there's a good few which still haven't really been resolved. If it was published regularly I wouldn't mind but it's all too irritating and every time something's seemingly solved it then becomes more complicated, so despite liking this a lot I'm going to give up on it until it's finally finished, probably in the year 2025.

Small Man Big Horse

Doctor Who issue 5 - Another pretty good issue though it felt a bit like a classic era tale, what with the way it introduces the location and the characters but we didn't get to see the villain until the very end. Houser writers 13 really well but even she can't make Yaz and Ryan interesting though, which is a bit frustrating.

Doomsday Clock 9 - Laughably awful, but I quite enjoyed it because it was so bad.

The Walking Dead 189 - I didn't hate it. Things happened for once and it was vaguely interesting. These are strange days indeed.

Also: One of my all time favourite directors Jaco Van Dormael (Mr Nobody, Toto The Hero) is involved in the creation of a new Blake and Mortimer graphic novel, I don't know much about the characters but will definitely have to check it out as I love his work so much, for anyone interested there's more on the story here: https://plus.lesoir.be/212079/article/2019-03-14/blake-et-mortimer-le-dernier-pharaon-transforme-bruxelles-en-une-zone-inhabitee

Phil_A

Skip Tracer finally came to an end in last week's 2000AD, and I can honestly say that after three consecutive and long-running stories I can't recall a single thing of note about the whole saga. It has the feeling of being an attempt to create a new semi-regular strip that could run year round a la Nikolai Dante or Sinister Dexter, but it's baffling that Tharg would chose this of all things to be that strip.

There's no hook for the reader, nothing to grab your attention or compel you to keep reading. The central character is completely without any kind of distinguishing features(I struggle to remember his name, which it turns out isn't actually Skip Tracer), and the storylines are just stacked up cliches of the kind you could insert into any dystopian sci-fi narrative with only the names changed. Frankly I'm amazed they didn't just take one look at the premise - "The main guy is like an ex-soldier on the run from his past, working as a mercenary in a violent city of the future" and just hoy it into the bin right there. It's painfully unoriginal and has been done so much better so many times.

It really suffers running alongside the likes of Blink and Grey Area, which effortlessly do the kind of rich, vivid worldbuilding that Skip Tracer would dream of being able to pull off, which I suppose is only to expected as Abnett is a past master of exactly that kind of thing.


Phil_A

In other news, after years in development hell(including an aborted Nicholas Winding-Refn project) the Button Man movie is finally happening, on Netflix.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/netflix-button-man-director-brian-helgeland-1203163200/

Norton Canes

#373
Quote from: Phil_A on March 16, 2019, 07:07:34 PM
Skip Tracer finally came to an end in last week's 2000AD, and I can honestly say that after three consecutive and long-running stories I can't recall a single thing of note about the whole saga...

It's been a bizarre inclusion. One could charitably call it something of a curate's egg, albeit a thoroughly underpoached one. It reminded me a bit of Mean Arena, from the 'golden age' of 2000 AD, the future sports saga that dragged interminably on while surrounded by classics like Nemesis the Warlock, Strontium Dog and the Judge Death Lives story, and prevented any prog it was in from being 100% thrill-powered.

I'd like to know a bit more about its background, because the second chapter is puzzling - thematically and stylistically it's very different, with mention of Blake Nolan's brother (yes, I had to look his name up) and the extended virtual reality/AI zombie sequence. It's by far the most enjoyable of the three chapters (i.e. it's enjoyable) and it makes me wonder if it was an idea from another strip, ported in to liven things up.

One thing I will say is that Paul Marshall's art was consistently excellent in chapters one and three, with Colin MacNeil deputising admirably between. Mostly, the art was the only aspect of the strip that kept me reading.

[Edit: It is actually definitely over, isn't it? I mean that last installment did look like the final one but has that been confirmed..?]

Phil_A

No idea, I'm trusting Tharg has abandoned it as a failed experiment. There certainly doesn't seem to be any indication of it being back in the near future, no "Skip Tracer will return" tag or anything like that

Norton Canes

Tharg seems to have a bit of a vague attitude to series finales at the moment. In this week's letter page he says there are two weeks until Grey Area reaches its conclusion; yet when the latest chapter of Kingdom finished recently with what might have been a wrap, there wasn't any clarification.

Oh well, more Slaine coming up soon... that's one strip we know is never going to end.

Artie Fufkin

I've just bought the entire run of Grath Ennis' The Boys on ComiXology. I had the first volume in a physical format from way back, and have been meaning to buy the rest of it. So I took the bait when it came up on sale.

madhair60

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on March 22, 2019, 12:43:07 PM
I've just bought the entire run of Grath Ennis' The Boys on ComiXology. I had the first volume in a physical format from way back, and have been meaning to buy the rest of it. So I took the bait when it came up on sale.

Gets a huge amount of shit but I really enjoy it in all its nasty glory.

Custard

I too am reading The Boys at the moment. I think it's brilliant

Surprisingly down to earth, and very funny

The idea of a Batman who likes to shag anything that moves, including a hot coffee cup, is making me laff just typing this out

I'm also reading Lady Killer, by Joelle Jones. It's about a normal looking housewife, who is actually a hitwoman on the sly. It's a slight, silly thing, but it's been a lorra fun so far. And I like the art a lot. A bit cartoony, yet grounded

Gulftastic

The third TPB of Black Hammer.

I always love when comics mess with tropes, and they are having a field day here. It reminds me, perhaps deliberately, with Alan Moore's run on Marvelman.

Gutted to find out that Saga is having a year off. And the next Paper Girls TPB is months away.....

I manages to pick up a lot of Invincible TPBs in a sale at OK Comics. I'm just waiting for two more that I bought used from Amazon to finish the whole thing. I've enjoyed it a great deal. Kirkman has built a terrific little world, and I like that the past is not forgotten when each new adventure begins. It's flowed really well.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Gulftastic on March 31, 2019, 07:34:13 PM
The third TPB of Black Hammer.

I always love when comics mess with tropes, and they are having a field day here. It reminds me, perhaps deliberately, with Alan Moore's run on Marvelman.

I really like Black Hammer too, the only thing that frustrates me is the gaps between issues is pretty long sometimes, so reading the trade paperbacks is probably the most satisfying way.

QuoteI manages to pick up a lot of Invincible TPBs in a sale at OK Comics. I'm just waiting for two more that I bought used from Amazon to finish the whole thing. I've enjoyed it a great deal. Kirkman has built a terrific little world, and I like that the past is not forgotten when each new adventure begins. It's flowed really well.

I finished reading that this year and liked it a lot overall, and it still strikes me as bizarre that Kirkman was able to create such a fun series when the last 90 odd issues of The Walking Dead have been so bad. If it took me longer than 5 minutes to read an issue (and, er, if I paid for them) I really wouldn't bother.

I read J.M. Dematteis, Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire's five issue mini-series of Defenders this week and enjoyed it a fair bit, it's different enough that it doesn't feel like they're just doing JLI with Marvel characters (though there are deliberate similarities) and it's a shame they never did another series as it made me laugh a good few times and Maguire's art is superb.

kidsick5000

If there's an indication of how meandering TWD has become, even the TV show has jumped forward to the Whisperers.

But Invincible pops. Some great twists in the story. I did like that each collection was named after a sitcom.

Small Man Big Horse

I was reading Detective Comics issue 1000 earlier and this advert made me smile:



I mean I had no interest in it at first, but a poem by Neil Gaiman? Now I have to buy it!

kidsick5000

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on April 02, 2019, 10:13:34 PM

I mean I had no interest in it at first, but a poem by Neil Gaiman? Now I have to buy it!

"There was a young crimefighter called Batman..."

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: kidsick5000 on April 03, 2019, 04:02:15 AM
"There was a young crimefighter called Batman..."

If you missed out 'young', that would scan pefectly



Lolz

Small Man Big Horse

There was a young boy called Bruce Wayne
Whose parents thought was quite a pain
So one night they faked their deaths
After pretending to take final breaths
To kill him they hired a man called Bane

kidsick5000

There was a crimefighter called Batman
Who loved it when bad guys didn't plan.
He said: 'I'll torture, kill you and curse,
You stupid mother fuckers'
Did I mention this version's by that Snyder man?

samadriel

Snyder man, Snyder man
Does whatever an edgelord can
Likes a death
Likes to cuss
Drowns our Bats in a spray of blood
Look out
Here comes the Snyder man.

Artie Fufkin

Spider-man, Spider-Man
Does the things a spider can.
Catches things, yes he does
With his big sticky gloves.

Mister Six

#389
Got myself a library card and a big pile of stuff to read. First up was Shade, The Changing Girl, vol 1: Earth Girl Made Easy. I used to bloody love Peter Milligan's Shade, The Changing Man back in the day; this has almost nothing to do with that, but is still a pretty entertaining read.

Essentially, a twentysomething space alien who's bored of her life filches the reality-warping Madness Vest that used to belong to Shade, The Changing Man, and uses it to transfer her consciousness into the body of a nearly brain-dead Earth girl so she can steal her identity and have a bit of a holiday. Unfortunately for her, that girl was a total bitch, and is despised by the whole school she has to attend. Worse than that, the authorities are on her tail to get the M-Vest back. Worse than that, she's becoming infected by the Madness and may end up deranged. And worse again, the soul of the total bitch whose body she's stolen is coming back for her property.

It's solidly YA fare, and doesn't come close to the kind of madcap, mind-bending lunacy that Milligan rejoiced in, but it's not trying to. Instead, it's a colourful fish (or bird - she's a space avian) out of water story with some lovely simple-but-detailed art and plenty of plot threads to develop. The storytelling is a little awkward, especially at the start, and it doesn't make enough out of the reality-warping effects of the vest (and nobody seems to react to the weird stuff, so it seems it's mostly in the new Shade's head), but hopefully we'll see more of that down the line.

What's next? I'm thinking about Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston Flores (nee Major). But we'll see.