The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[TGC]

Batman is the best book DC is putting out, don't regret picking it up. I'd say avoid Justice League, although I am enjoying the recent SHAZAM backup. Justice League International is good, but it's ending in two months so no point in jumping on now. A lot of "The Dark" books are good- I enjoy Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Frankenstein. Action Comics is another big thumbs-up.

I was curious about Frankenstein myself but never heard a good or bad thing about it. Until now.

I like it a lot. It's pretty strange, but that's to be expected. The writing duties switched from Jeff Lemire to Matt Kindt with issue #10, but apparently Kindt has has a hand in things from the beginning, so it shouldn't prove to be too jarring. Also, the art by Alberto Ponticelli is fantastically offbeat.

I think I will give it a shot in trade. Thanks.

[fr34k]

I can't remember if I asked this before, but anyway, here it goes.

Can anybody tell me if The Walking Dead is worth reading? I've seen the show but I'm not the biggest fan of it. I liked a few moments and episodes but I often found the writing to be terrible. I'd still like to check out the comics though, so without spoilers, what can I expect from them?

[Trench]

I can't remember if I asked this before, but anyway, here it goes.

Can anybody tell me if The Walking Dead is worth reading? I've seen the show but I'm not the biggest fan of it. I liked a few moments and episodes but I often found the writing to be terrible. I'd still like to check out the comics though, so without spoilers, what can I expect from them?

I would say yeah, I watched the show first and recently caught up on the comics and I really enjoy the comics. It is a lot to catch up on though, 16 volumes so far and coming up to the 100th issue next month.

[GoGo Yubari]

The comics are way more compelling than the show is. Robert Kirkman has some issues as a writer on that title, but I'd still say give them a shot.

[fr34k]

The comics are way more compelling than the show is. Robert Kirkman has some issues as a writer on that title, but I'd still say give them a shot.

If GoGo says so it must be true (Y). Thanks a bunch guys.

EDIT: Oh, and how about American Vampire? Yay or nay?

Edited July 3, 2012 by fr34k

[StevenRichardsRules]

I liked American Vampire, though I really only read from the first issue to the one where they go to the vampire island.

[Jacob C Ball]

I can't remember if I asked this before, but anyway, here it goes.

Can anybody tell me if The Walking Dead is worth reading? I've seen the show but I'm not the biggest fan of it. I liked a few moments and episodes but I often found the writing to be terrible. I'd still like to check out the comics though, so without spoilers, what can I expect from them?

I would say yeah, I watched the show first and recently caught up on the comics and I really enjoy the comics. It is a lot to catch up on though, 16 volumes so far and coming up to the 100th issue next month.

I would agree, but also disagree. The show and comic are basically two way different things in some aspects, but the comics seemed to get rather boring to make around the mid-60th or 70th issues. Haven't picked them up since, but really need too.

[Nick Adams]

So I got Batman: Earth One earlier this week, finally got around to reading it. It was definitely an enjoyable alternate take on the Batman story, but one that was still compelling and believable. The art was quite well-done, any my favorite image has to be an exterior image of the Arkham building. not spoiling anything beyond the fact that it exists, plot-wise, but the artist clearly took inspiration for the look of it from Arkham Asylum: Madness, and I love that fact.

[TKz]

Action Comics: Superman finally arrived. I wasn't really too keen on it. Compared to Batman and Detective Comics, it didn't wow me as much or make me want to read more. Even Green Lantern and Nightwing, who I've not ready anything of before, I really wanted to find out what happens next in their comics. Superman didn't do that for me, sadly.

Also been reading Nightwings first series from the start, I'm about 30 issues in now and it's pretty great! Not really too keen on the art style of it though.

Has anyone heard about Marvel Now! ? I saw the cover of the Avengers with it on and I wasn't really keen on it at all.

[Herr Matzat]

Spot for the ultimate spider-man TV Show. It seems, different... :-D

http://video.comicbookresources.com/television-clips/the-amazing-spider-ham-debuts-on-disney-xds-ultimate-spider-man/

[Jacob C Ball]

Thinking on checking out New DC 52: Earth 2... anyone been reading them and would ya recommend it?

[HailtotheYo]

Thinking on checking out New DC 52: Earth 2... anyone been reading them and would ya recommend it?

I've only got issue 1 but I liked it enough that I'll be reading a few more into the series.

[TGC]

Thinking on checking out New DC 52: Earth 2... anyone been reading them and would ya recommend it?

YES YES YES!

[Boulder]

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 2009 is fantastic. Some brilliant sight gags and cameos (Malcolm Tucker!), and a suitably bonkers, but great end to the main series, while potentially leaving it open for a sequel. It's not the strongest part of the series, and obviously the time period doesn't lend itself to imaginative fiction quite as well as previous installments, but it was a lot of fun. A shame there wasn't more Black Dossier-style messing with the genre and whatnot, but it's well worth a read either way. Can't wait for the spin-offs now!

And, as a result of finishing that, and still on an Alan Moore kick, I re-read V For Vendetta for the first time in years. Absolutely brilliant stuff, well worth revisiting. Insane to think it was written in the early '80s.

I finally got around to reading this yesterday. I really liked it, but I'll spoiler-tag my specific thoughts (and some misgivings):

Again, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Orlando's discovery of Allan Quatermain was shocking and brilliant- in fact, everything with Quatermain was brilliant. He may not have had a huge role in the book, but his death scene, especially, was wonderfully memorable and heroic. The last page of the book (or the comic section, at least) was possibly my favorite page of the entire thing- a graveyard filled with the "African" legends of white fiction, while Mufasa watches down? Wonderfully sentimental and wry at the same time. I also loved the scene where Mina and Orlando investigate the school, intersparsed with panels of the anti-christ's rampage. And of course, "Minions of the Moon" was terrific.

My criticisms center around the final battle, and some of the characterizations in it. I've never read any of the Harry Potter books (I saw the first movie in theaters, but that was, what, eleven years ago?), but of course, just living in the western world I know the main characters and their relationships. Is there any precursor in the books to the madness the anti-christ experiences at the end? I understand the reasons for it textually (he was forced into the evil position unwillingly) and legally (can't exactly have Harry Potter as Harry Potter taking his dick out and jizzing magic), but I still found it a bit anti-climactic when the enemy was really in no way recognizable as Potter. Is there a possible explanation for this beyond the obvious?

On a similar note, the Mary-Poppins-as-God thing was a bit surprising. Again, I've never read the original novel, but is that allusion present there? Has it popped up over the years? I've heard about a Neil Gaiman story that references a Mary Poppins book where she's Jesus's nanny, but I'd imagine there has to be more to it than that.

Still, all things considered, a great book with great art. A solid 7.5-8 out of 10, IMO.

[TGC]

Out of comicon comes news of a new Sandman Mini at DC and Vertigo by Gaiman and JH Williams III! So fucking cool!

[AnnIQ Edison]

To anyone that likes comics but only likes collected issues plus never knows where to start (like myself), Marvel are doing a newsagent series that collects some of the greater stories in hardback volumes. The first issue is The Amazing Spider-man: Coming Home arc with Issue two being the Dark Phoenix arc from Uncanny X-Men and Iron Man: Extremis for the third issue.

According to the TV spot on the website, it looks like there will be roughly 60 volumes.

http://www.graphicnovelcollection.com/

[probablyoliver]

Just finished Y The Last Man and holy shit;

Ampersand's death in the epilogue actually made me shed a tear. Genuinely cut up a bit by that

Absolutely phenomenal though, one of the best series I've ever read.

[Herr Matzat]

yep, great book. I think it´s being turned into a film right now.

Pick up "Saga". It´s Brian K. Vaughans new book only running for a few month.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Michael Matzat on a Plane

[Skummy]

I finally got around to reading this yesterday. I really liked it, but I'll spoiler-tag my specific thoughts (and some misgivings):

My criticisms center around the final battle, and some of the characterizations in it. I've never read any of the Harry Potter books (I saw the first movie in theaters, but that was, what, eleven years ago?), but of course, just living in the western world I know the main characters and their relationships. Is there any precursor in the books to the madness the anti-christ experiences at the end? I understand the reasons for it textually (he was forced into the evil position unwillingly) and legally (can't exactly have Harry Potter as Harry Potter taking his dick out and jizzing magic), but I still found it a bit anti-climactic when the enemy was really in no way recognizable as Potter. Is there a possible explanation for this beyond the obvious?

On a similar note, the Mary-Poppins-as-God thing was a bit surprising. Again, I've never read the original novel, but is that allusion present there? Has it popped up over the years? I've heard about a Neil Gaiman story that references a Mary Poppins book where she's Jesus's nanny, but I'd imagine there has to be more to it than that.

Still, all things considered, a great book with great art. A solid 7.5-8 out of 10, IMO.

On the Potter front, there's not a lot - aside from the backstory, and the lightning scar - that seems to identify him as Potter. I, too, haven't read the Potter books, but I'm pretty sure that the degree of madness imposed on him has no correlation to the character development in the original material. I think it's more Alan Moore taking the Harry Potter character and wondering what kind of effect all this "chosen one" nonsense and his "safe" schooling in an incredibly dangerous magical world would end up having on him.

Furthermore, an undercurrent of the series has been our reality breaking through to the League's world. In 1969 (I think, it might have been 1910), Prospero - who is essentially an Alan Moore author insert anyway - openly discusses the power of fiction, while in 2009 it's shown that Orlando keeps "Excalibur" in a toy-box from a real TV show, implying that Excalibur was a prop from our world that somehow "leaked" into the League world, and makes all question of whether it's the "real" Excalibur or not pointless, as nothing in their world is real. Throw in the much longer appearance of Andrew Norton than usual - himself bearing more of a resemblance to his creator, Iain Sinclair, than to the actual character he's supposed to be portraying, and often shown making reference to real world events.

Ultimately, "Potter as antichrist" comes down to the likes of Harry Potter being - in Moore's eyes - responsible for the death of imagination. They're too "safe", too unoriginal, too poorly written, and they don't encourage children to think. In the context of League taking place in a fictional universe, an uninventive fiction that wipes out all previous fiction is a fairly effective antichrist. Norton basically predicts the whole thing in 1969 when he refers to the "Franchise Express".

And, in that context, Poppins as God makes a fair bit of sense too. It seems fairly out of nowhere, but her entire purpose is to nurture the imagination of children - and it's that imagination that allows the League's universe to exist. There's also apparently some kind of reference to "Marie" being derived from the Qabbalah, justifying the "I'm on every page of the Bible" comment, but that's getting a bit heavy, and way out of my league in terms of interpretation.

On a side note, I need to go back and re-read the whole series again just to see how much of it was clearly plotted out in advance. Poppins appeared briefly in an earlier book, clearly referring to 2009, in the Blazing World, and interpreting all of Norton's dialogue with the benefit of hindsight could be fun.

[Steeb]

Just finished 100 Bullets, and wow, that might be the finest series I've ever read, if a little confusing at times - although it generally only lasts an issue or so. I cannot recommend it enough. Gripping stuff.