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March 28, 2024, 09:34:41 PM

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The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

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

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Small Man Big Horse

Last year DC released a 20 minute animated short film about Neil Gaiman's version of Death, written by J.M. DeMatteis. I'm quite fond of DeMatteis but this is largely shit, it revolves around a heroine addicted artist but is painfully on the nose, Death isn't in it that much but when she is she's quite bland, and the look of it all is fairly average too, and worst of all is the pay off
Spoiler alert
where the now dead artist draws Death and it looks like a sort of cutesy manga version of the character, but is supposed to be amazing,
[close]
is really ridiculous, and overall it's a massive disappointment. 4.4/10

Pingers

I'm not a big reader of graphic novels or comics, but my 12 year old loves Manga and anime. We're going camping in a couple of weeks and he can't think of any manga he wants to take cos he's read a lot and watched loads of anime so doesn't want to read those manga cos he knows the stories now. So I want to get him some non-manga graphic novels for something different but could use some pointers. He's pretty mature for 12 and likes sci-fi / fantasy more than most genres, although does like slice of life anime. Monstress looks good and I'll take my copy of Watchmen, but has anyone got any other recommends? Thanks

samadriel

I reckon Bone by Jeff Smith would be a satisfying read for a 12 year old gentleman. It's a massive tome, so it might cost a bit, but you'd get a lot of reading for your buck.

Pingers


Artie Fufkin

Just bought vol 1 to 3 of Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. I'm currently halfway through vol 3 of  his run on Doom Patrol which is COMPLETELY BONKERS, mate! Should I expect the same for Animal Man?

13 schoolyards

Morrison's Animal Man was a bit closer to traditional superhero stuff compared to Doom Patrol and having a more grounded central character puts a bit of a limit on the craziness (imagine if the Doom Patrol was just Cliff). But things do get increasingly weird there too, especially from the issues where he threatens to undo the original Crisis on Infinite Earths on.

madhair60

Quote from: Pingers on July 20, 2020, 09:13:17 PM
I'm not a big reader of graphic novels or comics, but my 12 year old loves Manga and anime. We're going camping in a couple of weeks and he can't think of any manga he wants to take cos he's read a lot and watched loads of anime so doesn't want to read those manga cos he knows the stories now. So I want to get him some non-manga graphic novels for something different but could use some pointers. He's pretty mature for 12 and likes sci-fi / fantasy more than most genres, although does like slice of life anime. Monstress looks good and I'll take my copy of Watchmen, but has anyone got any other recommends? Thanks

Unless you want to steer clear of Superhero stuff, Batman Adventures is a terrific all-ages Batman comic with no ties to the larger DC universe. Invincible from Image is similarly brilliant, but it gets very violent in later volumes.

Early Judge Dredd, like Complete Case Files 1 and 2 might be a good get unless that's a bit too archaic.

Moomin is always good, too. I wouldn't want to meet someone who couldn't appreciate Moomin.

On the manga side, Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2 are fucking funny, but maybe too adult/sexual, I don't know. I think they're quite innocent and sweet myself. I read them as a kid, and now I tommy tank to pictures of anime girls every night.

These might be horrifically bad recommendations.

Artie Fufkin


Artie Fufkin

Quote from: 13 schoolyards on July 21, 2020, 12:53:58 PM
Morrison's Animal Man was a bit closer to traditional superhero stuff compared to Doom Patrol and having a more grounded central character puts a bit of a limit on the craziness (imagine if the Doom Patrol was just Cliff). But things do get increasingly weird there too, especially from the issues where he threatens to undo the original Crisis on Infinite Earths on.
*thumb*

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on July 21, 2020, 02:04:42 PM
I will second Invincible!

I'd third it too, it's just a really fun romp that perhaps went on a little too long but ended in a very satisfying manner. I just hope it doesn't work as a gateway drug to other Kirkman, The Walking Dead became so painful to read in the last 90 issues that it got to the point where I was being weirdly masochistic by still reading it.

As for other recommendations, it's a bit tough as I've no idea what 12 year old's are like these days, but bar the odd bit of swearing he should be safe with: Locke and Key by Joe Hill, Descender by Jeff Lemire, The Vision by Tom King, All Star Superman by Grant Morrison, Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Marvels by Kurt Busiek. Plus there's lots of old 2000AD stuff I'm very fond of like Dredd, Zenith, Hewligan's Haircut, Halo Jones, etc, etc, but I don't know how well a 12 year old would take to them.

Pingers

You are all gentlemen and scholars, even MadHair60 *wink*

Artie Fufkin

Oooh. Sorry. Can I HIGHLY recommend Joe Kelly's I Kill Giants. Such a brilliant take on the 'coming of age' kind of thing. Brilliant stuff. He 'does' kids really well.

sirhenry

Quote from: samadriel on July 21, 2020, 04:45:53 AM
I reckon Bone by Jeff Smith would be a satisfying read for a 12 year old gentleman. It's a massive tome, so it might cost a bit, but you'd get a lot of reading for your buck.
Seconded

Mister Six

#943
Paper Girls is good - it's what I hoped Stranger Things would be. Four paper girls doing an early-morning delivery after Halloween find things going rapidly to shit when their town is invaded by... something. I've only read the first volume, mind, and it's a quick read. But everyone I know thinks it remains strong throughout. I think there's a Netflix series in the offing, so this is a chance to get in on the action before all the normies.



Will heartily second (EDIT: third) Bone. I picked up the lovely black and white single-volume edition years back and it was a hoot. Might look a bit "childish" if he's reading Watchmen too, but it's great, and it scales up into a properly epic story. Sort of like if three Looney Tunes characters wandered into the middle of The Lord of the Rings.




Mister Six

Oh - two more. Bandette is a really, really funny comic about a French catburglar that works for both adults and kids. Really charming.



And Beasts of Burden is a good bunch of spooky (and sometimes rather gruesome, but still funny) stories about a bunch of dogs and a cat who use magic to protect their town from all kinds of deadly threats. Gorgeous watercolour art, and fantastic characters.

(Click pics for bigness)




magval

Can't be doing with that twee dialogue in the last page there. I wonder if that style of "um, so, yeeaaahhh" speech is a uniquely American contrivance.

The original 150-odd issue run of Ultimate Spider-Man is great and should be suitable for a 12 year old. Unlike most Marvel stuff it is straightforward to collect and has a definitive ending, too (although it continues on with a different character, after being reset to issue 1).

Mister Six

That's a good call, although I'd be wary of other bits of the Ultimate Marvel universe, which became a playground for Mark Millar's brand of charmless teenage edgy bullshit.

samadriel

Yes, no human being should read Mark Millar comics; The Ultimates has its fans, and those fans are wrong. Among other issues, he truly wrote the worst depiction of Captain America that I can conceive of.

magval

Correct - Ultimate Spider-Man is an absolute rarity. An 'elseworlds' line with a consistent creative team, a single main series with very few side books (which are collected in order in the graphics) and it's actually good. It's better than just about all the main Spider-Man books that ran at the same time, Paul Jenkins excepted.

Any other Ultimate Marvel I read was absolute rubbish. The rest of it was what you'd expect something the Ultimate line to be. USM was a happy accident.

madhair60


Custard

Another fan of Ultimate Spider-Man here. It's a massive and great achievement

Went slightly wonky towards the end with crossovers an that, but the main run was excellent

Just finished the first volume of Ed Brisson's Sheltered, and really enjoying it

"The men and women of Safe Haven have been preparing for any and all end-of-world scenarios for years. However, their bunkers, weapons, and training can't save them from the one threat they never could have expected: their own children"

It's a bit like Lord Of The Flies meets The Walking Dead, though thankfully there are no zombies. Apparently there are only 15 issues, spread over three volumes, so it's short n sweet and hopefully keeps up the quality throughout

Spiteface

#951
Think the love affair with Boom's Power Rangers comics might be near the end.

"Necessary Evil" seems to have resulted in the return of evil alternate-reality Tommy, Lord Drakkon. The final few issues of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers are setting a new status quo for the launch of two new titles, apparently. Drakkon will join the Omega Rangers (Jason, Zack and Trini now apparently parting ways with Zordon) for Power Rangers. The current team will expand to seven rangers for Mighty Morphin' with a new Green Ranger (An update of the classic Green Ranger suit first seen in Bat in the Sun's Ryu vs Green Ranger video.)

Drakkon was a cool concept when Kyle Higgins introduced him during his run on the comic. Unfortunately, his popularity has meant the Power Rangers comics have now fallen into the trap of the TV show and made Tommy Oliver the centre of the fucking universe. And Jason David Frank does NOT need his ego stroked even further.

Power Rangers has so many other teams and continuities to explore that I'd rather they move on from MMPR. For all the issues I had with Beyond the Grid, at least that was a team composed of characters across the franchise's history.

Mister Six

Will we ever find out what comics Pingers Jr got to read?

samadriel

Man, Ninjak is really good!  If you don't know who that is, it's basically James Bond crossed with Batman with a tiny hint of the supernatural.  I'm currently reading some volumes from a few years back, including a slightly Knightfall-y one where he loses everything and has to go after an old enemy to get some peace; one where he has to find the cure for a time-travelling parasite in his brain; and now "The Seven Blades of Master Darque", which brings back the necromantic Valiant baddie Master Darque, who is definitely one of the more formidable supervillains in comics.  Ninjak is pretty much the number one "who would beat x?" fodder of the Valiant Universe, and they're not shy about pitting him against all sorts of Valiant bad guys from other comics; I've got "Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe" lined up later, which I expect will continue in that vein.  All of the above (well, maybe not 'vs the VU', I dunno who did that) were by Matt Kindt, who I'm finding to be a very reliable comics author; I'm looking forward to when Covid settles down a bit in the States and Bad Idea (a slightly too apt company name, but I grudgingly support them) publishes Kindt's "ENIAC'.  Until then, I recommend Ninjak.

Small Man Big Horse

Any DC fans of the late 80's/90's will probably be fond of Ted Kord's Blue Beetle, if only because of his friendship with Booster Gold in the really fun Justice League International comics. DC were utter shits and killed him off at one point, which annoyed me a ridiculous amount, but then brought him back so I decided to forgive them as I'm nice like that, but I shan't ever trust them again now as they're making him a villain, and so once again can go fuck themselves, the dirty, joyless cunts. https://www.gamesradar.com/from-blue-beetle-to-bad-guy-the-dark-side-of-ted-kord-revealed-in-suicide-squad/

Small Man Big Horse


letsgobrian

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on August 11, 2020, 04:02:20 PM
More DC news, as a fuck load of people have been fired: https://news.avclub.com/dc-comics-hit-with-huge-layoffs-dc-universe-streaming-1844681809 - which is depressing and then some.

If you ever had to deal with any pre-AT&T Warner companies, it is not surprising they are clearing things out at the top of the various fiefdoms.

Mister Six

Sad to see the colon-tastic The Sandman Presents: John Constantine: Hellblazer by Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell is among the DC fallen. Not only is it the best Constantine comic since Vertigo Hellblazer finished, it's actually the best since Mike Carey stepped off that title around #215. Spurrier has blogged about it here. Really hoping it gets revived with the same creative team, because they were a perfect fit for the character and content of the thing.

frajer

Quote from: Mister Six on August 19, 2020, 03:33:21 PM
Sad to see the colon-tastic The Sandman Presents: John Constantine: Hellblazer by Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell is among the DC fallen. Not only is it the best Constantine comic since Vertigo Hellblazer finished, it's actually the best since Mike Carey stepped off that title around #215. Spurrier has blogged about it here. Really hoping it gets revived with the same creative team, because they were a perfect fit for the character and content of the thing.

Bollocks, that's a real shame. After about 3 failed reboots, this one actually was decent. As you say, Spurrier and Campbell clearly got how to make the series work again. Bollocks.

samadriel

#959
The Valiant archaeology continues! I read a heap of Faith, which was charming, a good bit of light superhero fun with a culmination similar to Quantum and Woody (all the scattered baddies from earlier in the series team up).

Then I read both volumes of Generation Zero. It's kind of a cross between X-Men and Dazed and Confused, a small town torn apart by superpowered teen itinerants, weird psychic phenomena, and corporate thugs. It's slightly heavier than Faith, with some grim implications, but it's still pretty light, and you come to love these kids... But then
Spoiler alert
the story continues in Harbinger Renegades vol 2, and all but about three of the kids are murdered by HARD Corps! That issue of HR is quite horrific -- the HARD Corps characters you knew and mildly disliked for their mercenary nature in Bloodshot are sent on a relentless killing spree, shooting teenagers in the head or breaking necks, etc etc. I actually read HR months ago, but re-reading it immediately after GZ was a disturbing experience. I don't know why Valiant felt the need to write out, with prejudice, an entire superhero team who were much closer to the lightness of Faith than the bleakness of, say, Stalinverse.
[close]

I just started reading deluxe edition 2 of Shadowman. It started out REALLY shit, just like the first book, but after an issue or two Peter Milligan takes over and both artwork and writing become massively better. Finally looking forward to continuing with Shadowman now.