Official Comics Thread

[Velorath]

Ah, a Runaways recommendation. I was waiting for someone who had read it to comment.

It's good stuff.  Obviously not the same kind of read as something like Watchmen, but it's one of Marvel's few good comics that isn't about characters that have been around for 40 years.  Probably part of the reason why even though sales weren't all that great Marvel is bringing it back for Vol. 2 starting next month.

[sidereal]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0943151163/104-9081558-3305548?v=glance">Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and mostly anything else by Jhonen.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0919359086/104-9081558-3305548">Cerebus is golden if you're in the mood for making fun of Conan.

[schild]

I hate to come off as a pussy in front of all you (soccer?) hooligans, but Blankets was the best coming of age story I've read since, well, Catcher in the Rye.

It really is quite the tale. It's long, but I finished it in about 90 minutes. Goes quickly. I paid $30 for it, but at Amazon it's only $20. I'd suggest it. I also think it's a great gateway comic for women.

Oh, also finished Marvels. Fucking awesome.

Next 2 I'm gonna go for is Bone (since I already read half), Volumes 2-4 of Runaways (which is great) and Transmetropolitan.

[murdoc]

You're all bastards for getting me buying comics again.

BASTARDS.

[Jobu]

Haemish mentioned it, but it needs a bump.

Kingdom Come. Best. Comic. Ever.

And another bump for Rising Stars. But only the first... I dunno... 20 issues. It started to suck, and then Straczynski got lazy and stopped doing it.

And seriously, buy every Sandman TPB. The whole series was only 100 issues, so it's relatively easy to just read the whole thing over the weekend or something. Dream Country is great because it's some of the better "one-off" stories. But do like I said, just buy them all.


Oooo. Forgot some fun ones I read recently. Neat art styles, one is just silly fun. The other is like a Max Payne/White Wolf crossover. Fun stuff.

Invicible Ed

Criminal Macabre

[Avatard]

You're all bastards for getting me buying comics again.



BASTARDS.

Much better.

[daveNYC]

Grendel, Mage, and Kingdom Come.  Kingdom come is a standalone, the first two are series, but collected in TPB.

Bang for the buck award goes to Cerebus, but I wouldn't buy anything after Church and State II.

Frank Miller's 300, if it hasn't been mentioned before.

[Velorath]

Haemish mentioned it, but it needs a bump.

Kingdom Come. Best. Comic. Ever.

And another bump for Rising Stars. But only the first... I dunno... 20 issues. It started to suck, and then Straczynski got lazy and stopped doing it.

Kingdom Come is good, but best comic ever is pushing it a little.  If anyone other than Alex Ross did the art, I don't think it would have worked.

As for Rising Stars the final issues are coing out now (it wasn't a matter of laziness but some sort of dispute between JMS and Top Cow/Image that held the issues up), but really I'd say the first tpb is worth buying but the rest isn't all that great.  I think if the story had just focused on 100+ super-powered kids going to school together it would have been better.  As a 24 part story where it's known since the beginning that they're all going to die except for Poet the series seemed to degenerate into a "who's going to die this issue" thing.  Midnight Nation was a lot better.  JMS is a bit of a prick though so I don't really read his stuff anymore.

[Llava]

I own a copy of Watchmen.  I've read it a few times.  I enjoyed it a fair bit.

Transmetropolitan is just plain better, in my opinion.  It is likely the best series I've read.  Sometimes it's just really painful to see how decadent this future is... when you pay attention to details.  There's something very disturbing about a billboard in the background showing a smiling lady... chowing down on cloned human meat.  They think cannibalism is okay as long as it's not a "real" person, just a clone who was specifically created to be used as livestock.

Runaways gets a thumbs-up from me as well.  It's not world-altering or anything, but you start to care about the characters and want to know what happens to them.

But Transmet takes the highest priority.

[HaemishM]

And another bump for Rising Stars. But only the first... I dunno... 20 issues. It started to suck, and then Straczynski got lazy and stopped doing it.

Actually, he got into a dispute with the publisher over royalties (I think) and stopped doing it. He's just started it up again, and will be finishing the series up in a few months. I'd also recommend his "Supreme Power" series, which is a more "adult" retelling of the Squadran Supreme story. The two are very similar in tone.

EDIT: I never got into Grendel. Mage, however, especially the first series, is goddamn amazing. Matt Wagner's style is the shiznit. I think my favorite issue of the first series was the 14th (next to last) which was nothing more than two characters talking in an alleyway. It was just drawn and paced so goddamn well. The second series is fun, but not as much as the first.

[stray]

Little sidenote: I was just reading that Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremecy) is directing a Watchmen film, slated for a summer 2006 release. The writing credits will go to Alan Moore, and David Hayter (also known as the voice of "Solid Snake" from the Metal Gear games...Wtf?)

[HaemishM]

The Watchmen movie has been in development hell forever. It led to Alan Moore commenting something along the lines that Hollywood was full of soulless cocksuckers who will do everything in their power to fuck you. Given the results of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, I'd be inclined to agree with him. Hayter is a good scriptwriter... please don't let someone fuck up Watchmen. It's too good a story to LXG.

[stray]

Hayter is a good scriptwriter...

Ah, I didn't realize he was a scriptwriter. Of the X films no less. What I read at first made it sound like he only had experience as a voice actor. Imdb says he's the writer of Black Widow and Iron Man as well.

[Boogaleeboo]

It's a powerful statement when a man can write on amazingly popular X-Men movies and still be first listed as "The voice of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear games".

[Snowspinner]

I believe, actually, that for a long time Alan Moore was fairly happy with Hollywood. They made bad movies based on his work, he cashed the checks and never went to see the movies, and it all kinda worked out.

Then someone sued over LXG, claiming that it was plagiarized and that Alan Moore was hired to write the comic to cover the plagiarism, and Alan Moore decided it just wasn't worth it to even take the money. So V is for Vendetta, Watchmen, and all the other upcoming Moore movies won't even have Moore's name in the credits, and his share of the money will go to the artists.

As for comic reccomendations, Moore's Promethea is a total headtrip, yet strangely satisfying.

Also, check out Ex Machina. Just starting, the first six issues are already in trade, and it's one of the best things coming out right now. Very possibly the best first issue in the past decade.

[HaemishM]

Since my memory is obviously faulty, what Alan Moore Comics have been made into movies prior to LXG? The only one I can think of is "From Hell," which pretty thoroughly took a dump on the original story, while still managing to be a decent movie.

[Sky]

Wow, how did I miss this thread, heh.

I haven't really read comics since I got out of high school and let my FF/X-Men/Defenders subs lapse. But one of my favorite comics back then was the Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown miniseries, now available in a single volume. Great artwork, some of the best wolvy ever.

In fact, my concept of the 'real' wolverine is from that series. Just before he got silly popular.

[stray]

But one of my favorite comics back then was the Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown miniseries, now available in a single volume. Great artwork, some of the best wolvy ever.

 
Yep, I had that one. Well..At least the first issue. I'm gonna have to get the single volume, if only for memory's sake.

I wonder how much it's worth now. Just about all my good comics I had then got stolen one day's time (but that's another story).

[Snowspinner]

Since my memory is obviously faulty, what Alan Moore Comics have been made into movies prior to LXG? The only one I can think of is "From Hell," which pretty thoroughly took a dump on the original story, while still managing to be a decent movie.

From Hell was the only thing that got made. He had been raking in the options dollars for years before that, though.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4737">Interview to this effect.

[HaemishM]

Danke.

AM: Or at least he's got kind of a sense of humor. (audience laughs) I don't know what I was thinking, but I've said it now so I've got to kind of stick with it. But, on the other hand, just for the look on Hollywood producer's faces, "If he doesn't want the money, what does he want?" (audience laughs)

He is a poet.

The stuff I'm thinking about (with his comments about Hollywood) is actually secondhand stuff, said many years ago by Gaiman. Gaiman sort of got the same kind of jerking around fucking with on the Sandman movie script that Moore must have gotten on the original Watchmen scripts. Just total Hollywood glitz shit thinking. He told Gaiman that Hollywood people were flat and soulless and Gaiman was pretty much agreeing with him after the fact. I think Gaiman's feelings were based on attempts to make both Sandman and "Good Omens" movies. Might have been a Comics Journal interview I'm thinking of. Early 90's.

[schild]

Just started the Transmetropolitan. I can tell you right now (on the second book), this will be right under Watchman if it stays strong and may overtake it with a better payoff (the Watchman one was pitiful and obvious). Transmetropolitan also costs a lot for the full series. Easily worth it though.

Also reading Ex Machina, and enjoying it immensely.

[jpark]

It's been many years for me - but I was enthralled by Frank Miller's "Ronin" (80's?)

Ronin is the historical backdrop but otherwise the story takes place in the future in the mind of an amputee (arms and legs - bob) that controls a military complex.

[schild]

After reading the first five volumes, I want those glasses. I think they're the perfect accesory for a certain convention in a few months.

[Llava]

Unfortunately, they seem to be extremely rare.  At least, I can't find them.  If I could, believe me, I'd own a pair.

[schild]

So, so tempting.

[Llava]

Yikes. $141.19 total.  Wonder if they have any actual quality as sunglasses.  Probably not, I'm thinking.

[schild]

That's what I was wondering. The higher-res pic you posted up above really looks like shit. Like the kind of glasses you'd get from a machine. They'd be cooler rimless anyway. But, being that Warren Ellis is quite the counter-culture whore, there's no way they'll ever make them again.

[Lanei]

Between this thread, and the prospect of actually getting my copies of the Transmet trades back from the people I loaned them to,  I'm getting a serious hankerin' to read the whole series again.

Whats really great about it, in my opinion, is how re-readable it is, too.  With the amount of detail DarickR put into it, you can literally spend five minutes looking at all the stuff going on in a single page.

[Ironwood]

Having just finished it :

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ 1602 YOU ARE MISSING A WONDERFUL TREAT.


That is all.

[Gimmick Acct Sky]

Unfortunately, they seem to be extremely rare.  At least, I can't find them.  If I could, believe me, I'd own a pair.

2 pr cheap sunglasses
1 reel solder
1 soldering gun

;)

[schild]

Unfortunately, they seem to be extremely rare.  At least, I can't find them.  If I could, believe me, I'd own a pair.

2 pr cheap sunglasses
1 reel solder
1 soldering gun

;)

If you want to make me a pair, that would rock.

On a COMPLETELY seperate note, I've recently finished volume 9 of Transmetropolitan. In the history of stories told, this will go down as one of the best ever. Period.

[Velorath]

Looks like Bruce Campbell is going to take a stab at writing comics.  Having recently written one comic for Dark Horse, apparently next he's going to do a six-issue adaptation of the script he co-wrote for some upcoming movie called Man with the Screaming Brain.  More info can be found here.  I'm not expecting one of the greatest comics ever written but at the very least I'm curious to see how it will turn out.

[Hanzii]

Garth Ennis' take on Punisher - which to read?

I just picked up Beginnings which he did for the MAX range. Pretty good. What should I get next? Is his ordinary run worth getting?
Bear in mind, that I don't really read superhero comics anymore - only when a decent writer does some twist on them (like 1602).

Picked up League of Extraordianry Gentlemen vol. 2 too - pretty good, but not amazing.

[stray]

Garth Ennis' take on Punisher - which to read?

I just picked up Beginnings which he did for the MAX range. Pretty good. What should I get next? Is his ordinary run worth getting?
Bear in mind, that I don't really read superhero comics anymore - only when a decent writer does some twist on them (like 1602).

Picked up League of Extraordianry Gentlemen vol. 2 too - pretty good, but not amazing.

Hmm, I was wondering about the Max versions. I've read Born though...That was good. As for the older stuff, try Welcome Back Frank.

[HRose]

My suggestions:

- The Preacher - Garth Ennis, Vertigo - This is the most awesome EVER. A myth. All the serie from 1 to the last (66)
- American's Best Comics - All the stuff coming out, it's Alan Moore
- Authority (DC) - All the serie
- Invisibles (Vertigo) - Grant Morrison + acids
- The Filth (Vertigo) - Grant Morrison - Serie of 13
- Astro City - Kurt Busiek - All the serie

In general I love Sam Kieth - Dave McKean - J.M. DeMatteis - Matt Wagner - Neil Gaiman - Alan Moore - Grant Morrison - Warren Ellis - Garth Ennis - Chris Bachalo - Peter Milligan
Everything coming out from Vertigo is worth reading.

WHY still noone has thought about opening a colossal online store selling digital volumes? I'd make them RICH.