Be Excellent To Each Other

I thought it might be nice to have a thread to discuss and recommend and that.

I really like comic books. But rarely buy them because I read them extremely quickly and then never really consider reading them again - and it's not as though they are cheap things. They are rather disposable - most of the time. But I use the library to read trashy comics all the time and it is ace. That said some comics transcend that and are tremendous works to be treasures and kept. Therefore RECOMMENDATIONS AND DEBATE!

Here's a few thoughts on what I've been reading recently.

Lucifer - the spin off to Neil Gaimans "The Sandman" by a different author so you might be excused for thinking it a shoddy poor sequel; but it is tremendous work in it's own right, that I suspect surpasses Sandman. That said I only read a few of the trades of Sandman (which introduced Lucifer) then a friend gave me the first Lucifer to read. I've now finished all 10 volumes of Lucifer without going back to Sandman.


Basically it's about Lucifer, the fallen angel and what he does after he quits his job as the keeper of hell. He's not nice and he does terrible things but you can't help rooting for him to succeed. And it's very hard to shake the feeling that he's nice deep down, when he really isn't. A wonderfully complex work with no straight forward good an evil which over the 75 issues constructs a very real world with very set boundaries and then you watch as the initially random pieces all fall into place as Lucifers plans come together. S rank

The Walking Dead by Kirkman A book I'm disliking more as time goes on as it becomes bleaker and bleaker. The fact there are so few happy moments detailed over the span of a year (especially in the ) makes me think less of the work. Maybe I've read it too quickly and it has ground me down...

Invincible Is also by Kirkman and is also an extremely good book. The first big hard back volume is well worth the money and excellent. Invincible is the teenage son of Omniman (aka Superman) and starts getting his superpowers. A big cast of characters in their own world (pretty much) so big changes can happen. It's basically Buffy the Vampire meets the JLA in comic book form. Trashy, Bright, Colourful, Funny and occasionally very serious indeed.

Obviously Alan Moore's work is always worth reading. A tremendous voice. V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Watchmen are well known classics so instead I will recommend Top 10. It's about the police force in a city made up almost entirely of super heroes. And it's much, much better than that sounds.

Not a huge comics fan myself. I own a lot of Dark Horse Aliens stuff, first prints mostly... mostly. Not the best investment, their prices never went up. Not that I'd sell.

My big comic weakness is this chap.



I've got almost everything he's ever been in. I recommend the first Batman crossover if you want an introduction to him.

The best ever comic of all time was this one though.

Still haven't read anything better than Maus and I don't think I ever will. Nice to be proved wrong though.

Watchmen is awesome, yes.

I plan on getting The Walking Dead first compendium soon, been after it for ages.

If you like cool music from the 90s, and think that music is magical, Gillen's Phonogram is pretty great.

I love Judge Death and his cronies, I used to get 2000AD every week, now I just get the odd Graphic Novel...Batman or Dread..

Never been into comics but after watching The Crow for the first time at the weekend, I'm tempted to investigate that one. I hadn't even realised it was based on a comic in the first place till I looked the film up on Wikipedia.

The Marvel Zombies story has some glorious artwork, and the story is not that bad.
I want to read The Walking Dead, too.

I have a metric ton of graphic novels i'm trying to sell at the moment that my brother dumped on me when he moved. They're mostly Marvel stuff, although from my limited knowledge, there's some more obscure superheroes alongside the spider-man stuff.

I'm not really one for comic books but yeah, I thought Phonogram was ace (the second run, the Singles Club, even moreso than the first). McKelvie's artwork is really something though. His Suburban Glamour 4-parter is pretty good too.

I agree about The Walking Dead. I stopped subscribing after issue 80 odd.

Bloody hell how many issues are there? Is it still running* too?

*Is that why you stopped?

Why?

Just got bored of it. It just seems to be dragging on and on.

Oh, I meant 50 odd as well. 54 is the last issue I got.

A bit like zombies, really. Hey, that's a whole other layer of deep.

I'm on volume two of the softback collections, and I really can't see what the conclusion could possibly be other than (a) they fix the zombies and all is happy ever after (b) they all die (c) they create a zombie-surrounded civilisation and everyone lives happily, if carefully, ever after.

They won't ever conclude it. I think he's just making as much money as possible and it'll just peter out like a wet fart.

That was my concern too. Still, I'm going to hack on with them, in preparation for the TV series.

Unlelated, but I'm also trying to get hold of the Star Wars: Legacy graphic novels, but struggling as volumes 1 and 2 are quite hard to get hold of. They're set 100 years after the last of the novels, and look quite excelllent - a bit darker and more adult (but not in a nuddy sexy sexy way)

I think that the guy who writes it stated that was his goal at the start - to make an ongoing series that had no end, he could keep changing the characters indefinetly.

Soap opera.

Actual physical copies or 'Yar' (which you can find the full set on Demonoid here : http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2354532/1734222/)

Dimmers - you say that like it's a bad thing.

Zaphod - cheers, chap - still, I've never torrentzed anything before - (a) how do I do it and (b) will the police or the MPAA get me?

OOH! That looks ace! I can't wait to...

*looks more closely at cover*

... aw, hell. I'm not allowed to read it. Not fair.

Ooh. I hate that.

All stories begun should have a definite end in sight.

Neverending Story says you're wrong, and Neverending Story 2 leans round from behind it, shakes its fist and goes "yeahhhhhh".

And all the while Limahl is strumming his g-string.

I think Maus probably is the greatest comic book ever written. It's just so heartfelt and concise and true and mesmerising and everything.

Normally I'd go on about Alan Moore but you lot all know him so I won't. There's a great comic book writer and artist called Mattotti who's very strange. He did this one called 'Fires'. It's painted in a sort of modernist semi-cubist style, the sort of style that was possible in the twenties through to the forties, and is almost like a fever dream or a Kafka story. It features a young sailor on board a battleship ordered to investigate a remote island that's part of the empire. There's strange doings on the island and the sailor begins having vivid dreams. Two bizarre stone-like little men try to lure him away to spend his life on the rolling green fields and woods of the sunlit isle. Unreasoned fear grips the crew of the battleship. Blood is shed. Things are awoken. It's pretty unforgettable. It's not exactly a thrilling read and you're sort of unsure when you read it whether it's actually that amazing at all, but once you've read it the island and the ship and the man stick inside your head and refuse to fade away. Worth a read.

I'm a fan of Jim Woodring too. He's a very strange American who has waking dreams and writes them down and illustrates them. He's a genuinely great artist and he also constructs toys and pottery of his characters and thoughts that double as practical things like clocks and sweet dishes and soul-converters and what-not. Read 'Frank', his wordless tales about a sort of cat-bear-mole that lives with an odd furniture shaped cat called Pupshaw. Frank has run-ins with the devil and Man-Pig. The devil usually plays a trick on Frank, or tempts him, or attacks him with his body-transforming rattle-whir-stick-thing. Frank is sometimes greedy, sometimes dangerously curious, sometimes cruel, sometimes heroic, sometimes genteel. He sometimes learns a lesson and sometimes doesn't. The moral is not always apparent. There are terrible things he witnesses. Dark things that come crawling up from somewhere unspeakable. These are things Jim Woodring sees from time to time. He's a nice, friendly guy though. He cheerfully replied to an email I sent him once.

I wish I hadn't lost my signed copy of Tank Girl.

Feex

You always have to lower the tone.

Finished reading 'I Kill Giants' yesterday. It was a gift from the Mrs at Christmas and as such I didn't have a clue what it was about. I picked it upwhile the house was quiet and read it all without putting it down once. Brilliant.

The story by Joe Kelly is suberb, it marries the fantastical with tragic reality brilliantly. I don't want to expand on the story at all as it would spoil it. The artwork is beautiful too by J. M. Ken Niimura. His black and white drawings match the writing perfectly.

Highly recommended.

Up in the loft I've got a complete set of Scream, plus a whole pile of Eagle after it merged.
Sadly they aren't going to be in immaculate condition as they got read many times, and I've definitely lost the free fangs.

My first set of Scream went the way of that childhood cliche: my mum threw them out for no reason.

When I moved out I picked up a full set from a mixture of comic fairs, 26pigs and eBay. I've got them all, plus the specials and the Eagle crossover issues.

They released a compilation of the 13th Floor stories a couple of years back. Rubbishly it only covered 11 issues of Scream, as opposed to the full 15 issues and the follow-ups in Eagle.

I got the first trade of Mike Carey and Peter Gross' The Unwritten for Christmas and it's absolutely terrific. It's a story about stories and as such feels a bit Sandman-y but obviously that's in no way a bad thing.

In general though I like my comics four-colour and trashily entertaining, and to that end I'd recommend Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's awesome run on The Incredible Hercules. It's funny as hell, it feels epic and mythic and the action sequences are terrific. Also: check out pretty much all of Gail Simone's DC work, particularly the Secret Six. Ragdoll might be my favourite character in superhero comics at the moment, both in terms of his costume and his personality which is simultaneously creepy, childlike, hilarious, depraved and insane.

Must... hold back... from writing a million billion words... about good comics...

Alright, just one more: Batwoman: Elegy. JH Williams art so it's jaw-droppingly beautiful (see also: Promethea) and Greg Rucka script so it's tough and intelligent and yet totally emotionally convincing (see also: Queen & Country). The story's a little bit up-and-down but in the space of 150-odd pages it made me both gasp out loud in awe and have a quiet little manly weep, so there's that.

Please don't!

Oh my fucking good lord, man. That's amazing. I was religiously devoted to that magazine and was trying to tell someone about it the other week in fact!. I couldn't for the life of me remember what the magazine or the stories were called, which ended in that certain someone making their excuses and sidling slowly away while I was locked in memory freeze. I must have looked as though I was having a stroke.

You are a god, Blucey!

If only someone could remember the name of those stickers with alien fighters and monsters, I might actually do some work this year. Y'know they came on an A3 page which had a background of, say, space, or something resembling an ewok forest and came with a load of stickers that you could put on the background. Anyone? Too vague. Never mind, carry on.

I know exactly what you mean. The stickers were 're-stickable', right?

That's right. I can't remember them having a brand name at all - I think they just came in a plain plastic cover that held the stickers in.

I remember those!

And little packets (like footy sticker size) of glow in the dark monster transfers, bought shed loads of them.

Spacehoppers. Remember them? eh? eh? Maaad.

I remember when you were a nice polite hippy.

Yes. Apologies for the thread-crash, I thought it was bits'n'bobs :embarrassed:

Don't worry, I'll save it!

Zardoz, have you read Maus yet? If not, then... DO SO.

Yes. It's still my favorite.

Incidently I think 'I Kill Giants' is one of the books that got delivered twice*, so I may have a copy available if anyone wants it for £5.

*

Oops, think I read this wrong:



As...



Honestly, it's like I'm a Daily Mail reader or something with all these kneejerk reactions.

I forgive you.

Tut, tut.

And you a mod, too!

FOR SHAME

I remember the graphic novel of Tim Burton's Batman to be better than the movie. Clouded childhood memories, or trufax?

I'll take you up on that if you want. Alternatively i've got some marvel spares if you want something in exchange?

Maybe, if you have any complete novels?

You got dibs btw.

Complete jobbies i have:
Ultimate X-men Hardcovers vols 1, 2, 3
Majestic (wrote by the i kill giants chap and some by alan moore)
many armors of iron man