[Enef]

So i went to the bookstore and picked up 30 comics(no duplicates).

I am please, they are all from the early 90's from what i can tell (Advertisements for the Terminator 2 sega game!)

Actual thoughts and picks of the bunch will come later.

[James]

.....and Ryp's stuff is reminiscent of Dillon except it has a level of detail that was always missing from his work

....actually it's reminiscent of DARROWS work, and by reminiscent I mean completely ripped off! It completely amazes me that he gets away with it.

http://www.burlymanentertainment.com/site/img/shaolin_desk_print_1280.jpg

QUE?

[Wei Ingnan]

i was actually thinking it was a little bit of both, but at the time I couldn't remember Darrows name.....and didn't feel like saying that guy who did 'Big Guy and Rusty'.....which was three flavors of awesome by the way

[Marley]

Its okay Jed! Right now I have to admit that I'm totally diggin the Andy Kubert Grant Morrison Batman.

Even more so I love love love THE BOYS by Garth Ennis and Derrick Robertson

I think the title got kicked off of Vertigo for being a little too crass, but Dynamite picked it up and its going strong. Issue 8 came out this week! The story is about a group who act as watchdogs for superheros who are out of control. Heres a synopsis from Newsarama because I'm not the best at explaining things!

"The Boys are a team of five super-powered operatives who work for a secret department within the U.S. government. It's their job to monitor and investigate superhero behavior, they gather intelligence- i.e. dirt- on them, and occasionally to use it against them. Just as the C.I.A. has had a use for the Mafia, Sadaam Hussein, and Columbia's FARC terrorists (to name a few), so they also need superheros. Sometimes they need them on a leash. Sometimes they have to put them down. The Boys are the people who do the job.”

Garth Ennis is in Preacher form for this book. You can really tell he's having fun with it, and he isn't holding back! I've seen better art from Derrick Robertson, but its still a solid read. I ENJOY IT!!!

If any of you liked the book WANTED then you'll love The Boys!



OH AND I HATE WHAT THEY'RE DOING WITH X-MEN ENDANGERED SPECIES!!! Seriously the issue 200 event comic came out this week, and its pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to read. They decided to divide the art on this issue between Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos. Bachalo's work was clean and intelligible, but Ramos seriously sucked. His pacing is so jerky and abrupt. It would jump from heavy dialogue to sudden street fighter face off. Zero transition!!! Almost no backgrounds on his pages..... even his cover was crappy!! We had 3 alternate covers and Ramos' was the least bought and most complained about. AUGH if you can't draw Wolverine badass you shouldn't be drawing an X-men comic!!!!!

[Wei Ingnan]

yah I'm not so crazy about the art either....it goes up and down fer me...the first couple of issues were better....but the story is still developing very well

[Marley]

yah I'm not so crazy about the art either....it goes up and down fer me...the first couple of issues were better....but the story is still developing very well

Yess... Ennis is really on a roll with this one. I totally got a kick out of the old guy that lives in the basement of the comic shop.

Have you read the current batmans yet?? I didn't dig the cg art on the prose comic, but the Andy Kubert issues have been sweet!

[Aluísio C. Santos]

Haha, I'm still over mangas

It's a one-shot series by Akira Toriyama. I liked the story concept, but it felt too much like a Dragon Ball redesigning. Still, his art here is in his best shape I'd say, similar to that recent Dragon Quest game.


Steel Ball Run, I'm still in volume 5, but couldn't find the volume cover of it X_X.
What can I say, it's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part Seven, it's great. It has one of Hirohiko Araki's best levels of pacing and suspense, let's say, it keeps you glued to the pages. The focus on the story is a lot different from the other parts, though, as it takes place in a race in 1890's EUA.

[Enef]

Hey look what Enef is reading.



Just came in the mail this morning, Sharknife vol.1.

[Aluísio C. Santos]

What :O is that from the Dev Art guy?

[Enef]

www.reyyy.com

Corey "The Rey" Lewis.

I BELIEVE a friend of James and Marley's and a fucking AWESOME comicer.

Sharknife is dope.

Possibly one of the dopest comics i've ever held in my hands.

GO BUY IT NOW.

[j.allen]

Amazing spiderman, supermarket (over and over again lol) X-men, and anything humberto ramos or jim lee puts out lol

[Enef]

Hey, look what came in the mail this morning.



DMZ-On The Ground
Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli

I already read the series up to issue...11? i think? but i had to actually own this thing, it's easily one of the raddest things i've ever read. It's awesome and inspiring.

I'm not sure but i think this comprises issues 1-5 in one volume.

I think it's definetely one of those books that people need to read at least one issue of.

[Jed]

Top Ten, by Alan Moore, Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, from America's Best Comics

Imagine a futuristic American city designed by WWII science-nazis in which every single inhabitant has superpowers. That's Neopolis, a gigantic, strange beautiful city, and Top Ten is about a precinct of cops who take care of it.
The book is great, a mix of the wide cast and personal stories of a police procedural and the hijinks and craziness of a superhero book. It's kind of like Powers, but on speed. The writing from Alan Moore is fantastic, as per, and Gene Ha's art is fantastic, showcasing not only the the characters but also the incredible city they live in.
Also good is The Forty-Niners, a prequel set in a newly built Neopolis, circa 1949, and the influx of folks just coming off of the second World War. Rough and tumble cops, vampire mobsters, robot racism and more. Best read after Top Ten, though.

However, stay away from Top Ten: The Farthest Precinct. It was pretty bad, coming after the Moore/Ha run.

[Wei Ingnan]

I enjoyed all of the stuff from America's Best.....Tom Strong (and especially Tom Strong's Terrific Tales) had it's moment's and so did Promethea



but Top Ten and 49'ers were damn cool

[James]

I've been reading a lot of comics lately. Mostly nothing good, but I've rediscovered GEMS...




GREEN LANTERN WILL WORLD - Seth Fisher in his prime. There really isn't anything about this book that isn't fun or gorgeous to look at. If you like weird.... things, you will like this.

.... and another Fisher book...



FANTASTIC FOUR AND IRON MAN ARE BIG IN JAPAN - Almost a throwback to the old Kirby era FF comix. They fight giant monsters, sea urchin cows, and finally discover the reason why Moloids exist. PLUS, in the back of the trade, it has Seth Fishers notes about about his panels. He was amazingly mathematical in his approach to comics, and reminds me how tragic it was that he died and will never draw more.

The Boys is pretty funny too. Tek Knight is so good in that, with how he just can't stop fucking things and sends his boy ward away before something happens. What I don't like about it though, is how they made Hughie look like the Shaun of the Dead dude. That drives me fucking mental! They did that shit in Ultimates too! It makes me wonder WHY they are drawing comics and not just doing fucking STORYBOARDS!! AUGH PET PEEVE! ....but yeah, kinda back to form for Ennis, which is somewhat good.



Speaking of Ennis, I read two collected volumes of WAR STORY, which is totally awesome.



It's a collection of several fictitious (but historically accurate) WWII war stories, from setting all around the world. I gotta agree with Kevin that Ennis is kinda one-note, but this is a great 180 for him, and is definitely the best thing I've read from him. He doesn't rely on ultra-violence and incredibly out-there characters to tell an interesting story, but it still has that dark humor charm of his which makes his writing so appealing. My favorite story was the one about the pilots who got rocketed off of convoy ships to fight off bombers, but had to bail out in the ocean cus there was no way to land.


I've been going through a lot of Ultimates books too (for some reason I feel like I have to.), but fuck those. They are the reason why I stopped reading superhero books for half a decade. Millar on Ultimate X men is so genuinely bad that it's amazing even die-hard X men fans stayed with it. THAT, and Bachalo is one of the worst storytellers I've ever seen (right up there with Ramos! FUCK RAMOS!!)

Civil War was a huge letdown too. I love that the climax was "HEY LET'S FIGHT. WAIT PEOPLE DON'T WANT US TO, OK LET'S JUST GO HOME SIGH." The whole story was a huge gimmick that the X men books have already been doing to death for years.

Annihilation was the only good Marvel event in forever, and even now the second run of it is turning out to be horrible. Who the fuck cares about WRAITH? Mcfarlane-type characters stopped being cool 15 years ago, and the new Quasars only thing is that she's a lesbian with a daddy complex! TRASH FLAVORED TRASH. They need to bring back Annihilus to eat more peoples faces, and Drax to stab more shit. :::::SPOILER:::::::: and now NOVA is DEAD and come back as some random KREE BROAD?? WHAT THE BALLS?!?!


Comic rant over.

[garic]

If you've never read anything by Will Eisner, then you should, because he really is that good.

One of my favorite books by him is called Life on Dropsie Avenue.



As you can probably tell from the cover, this collects Contract with God, A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue -- three of Eisner's graphic novels which all focus on Depression-era New York City, but look at it from very different perspectives.

Contract with God and A Life Force are both essentially slice of life stories that examine people of various walks of life in NYC.

Dropsie Avenue is similar, but is a history of the titular street that spans from colonial times to modern day.

As always, Eisner's art is great and his storytelling and pacing really help these stories flow.  Nothing really negative to say about the stories, and the book itself is very high quality -- hardcover and good paper, but also reasonably priced.

It's good.

[Jed]

I really liked War Stories. The Condors, I think it was called, with Carlos Ezquerra, the one with the four Spanish, Irish Nazi, German and British Communist soldiers caught in the bomb crater in the Spanish Civil War. Also, J for Jenny, a nice nod to David Lloyd, who did the art (and drew V for Vendetta). As well as Johann's Panzer and the one that ended in a song, which I can't exaclty recall, it's been a couple years since I read them.
Shit, I guess I could have just said I liked them all.

[Kevin Birtcher]

Like James, I've read a lot of stuff lately, mostly not good.

It's all about Mouse Guard


Beautiful and fantastic story of a society of mice.  This story focuses on a mystery and rebellion brewing within the Mouse Guard - a trained force protecting the territories.  My only complaint is it's not long enough.  I would have loved if this book were twice as big, because it just leaves you wanting more.


DMZ is the shit, I love that series.

War Stories is great.  I read the first series when it came out years back, I vaguely remember him doing a second series, but haven't read those.  I should find and buy those books.

Short story about Megatron: Origin -  He's a fucking union leader.  I hate how writers come along decades later making origin stories for badasses that amount to the character REALLY being misunderstood and sympathetic.  CRAP

Invincible - Dan's been trying to get me to read this for years(?) and so I finally broke down while in pain and needing a distraction.  My conclusion - It's exactly the same as all other superhero stories, only with Kirkman's unique flare (lack of talent). Stick to The Walking Dead, it's his only good book... but I've only read half the series, so I can't even fully speak for that one.

edit by Wei: fixed yer img links

[Wei Ingnan]

see the thing fer me with Kirkman is I like what he does overall...

..I have enjoyed Walking Dead and Invincible and Brit..... ( I am however leaning strongly towards a vote of SUCK with Astounding Wolfman...but the artwork is pretty damn good and has me relenting ) ....but I always feel like he hasn't quite hit the mark or that he is somehow holding somthing back......I keep reading his stuff, letting his artists tide me over ( at least until Moore quit TWD ) waiting for him to cut loose and really blow me away....I really feel like there is somthing developing with him and his Invincible Universe but with the exception of a few minor peaks he hasn't quite got there yet....but his artists on Invincible and Brit and especialy on Wolfman appear to be pulling more than their share of the weight and are keeping the various books alive for me.....for now at least









and on a side note if Moore quits Exterminators (the project he quit TWD to go and work on) I am not gonna be a happy fanboy

[Kevin Birtcher]

see the thing fer me with Kirkman is I like what he does overall...

..I have enjoyed Walking Dead and Invincible and Brit..... but his artists on Invincible and Brit and especialy on Wolfman appear to be pulling more than their share of the weight and are keeping the various books alive for me

I don't want to turn this into a Kirkman thread, but I do want to state why I don't like Invincible.
(Walking Dead is good, Tech Jacket has nice art but cookie cutter story, Ultimate X-Men is a disaster (the art sucks too, so sad), Ant-Man and Wolf-man... couldn't be less interested)

Dan and I agree that if I read the first book and didn't like it, he wouldn't hound me about reading the series anymore.  So I've only read the first book, but it completely turned me off.

Starts off with the main character going through his life, but suddenly developing super powers!  The same ones his father has!  And they all work!  Without even trying!  There's a brief explanation as to why the father has powers, but none for why anyone else on the planet has them.  The big mystery of the first arc is obvious from the setup, but he doesn't even figure it out.  It's solved by a supporting cast member... off-panel.

The whole thing is the middle of a just-average story.  There's no real beginning of coming-of-age, or learning to use his powers... he just has them, gets a suit, and starts saving people.  And there's no conclusion either.  "Someone else solved the case for us, but since he's busy, so we'll go catch the bad guy... where he spells out his motivation and details his scheme for us!  YAY!"  It's as if Kirkman wrote a story, then through-out everything interesting.  Put a proper beginning in, and conclude it without the main characters sleeping their way to the end and you'd still have just a mediocre superhero comic.  Oh, and all the while he's making fun of other superhero comics... You can't make fun of superhero comics while pretending your own superhero comic is better.

At the end of it, the only character I liked was the mother.  She's the only one that had an actual voice... the rest of the cast were just the same character with different heads and clothes.

[Enef]

I'm currently reading Legends From Darkwood: The Unicorn Hunters(Suggested by James a while ago in this thread as a good "Poop" comic) It's hilarious, i loved every minute of it!


I read Scott Pilgrim Volume 1, i don't get the hype, the romantic comedy stuff was good, a guy with a teenage girlfriend finds another chick etc etc and it's good, it's funny, it's cute...then the action threw me out of whack and hurt my brain. Why have such TERRIBLE and WEIRD action in the back of the book? Stick with what was working, don't throw this FREAKY DANCE BATTLE in my face that makes no sense and doesn't work very well with the style of art you have chosen.

Naruto 15 as well, i'm a narutard, enough said.



I have 6...? Maybe 5? of the volumes of Invincible, i like the story and artwork, i love The Walking Dead by kirkman too, i'm not a huge fan of The Amazing Wolf-Man though. I think Kirkman has his moments but they can be few and far between at times. You really have to invest yourself into his series to get them.

[MESIASdaRocket]

Top Ten, by Alan Moore, Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, from America's Best Comics

Imagine a futuristic American city designed by WWII science-nazis in which every single inhabitant has superpowers. That's Neopolis, a gigantic, strange beautiful city, and Top Ten is about a precinct of cops who take care of it.
The book is great, a mix of the wide cast and personal stories of a police procedural and the hijinks and craziness of a superhero book. It's kind of like Powers, but on speed. The writing from Alan Moore is fantastic, as per, and Gene Ha's art is fantastic, showcasing not only the the characters but also the incredible city they live in.
Also good is The Forty-Niners, a prequel set in a newly built Neopolis, circa 1949, and the influx of folks just coming off of the second World War. Rough and tumble cops, vampire mobsters, robot racism and more. Best read after Top Ten, though.

However, stay away from Top Ten: The Farthest Precinct. It was pretty bad, coming after the Moore/Ha run.

I' still have to read the 2nd. TPB(8-12), but I really enjoyed the first half. Do you have readed the Smax mini-series?

Also, I dunno how I didn't readed Dresden Codak until now.

[garic]

I read Scott Pilgrim Volume 1, i don't get the hype, the romantic comedy stuff was good, a guy with a teenage girlfriend finds another chick etc etc and it's good, it's funny, it's cute...then the action threw me out of whack and hurt my brain. Why have such TERRIBLE and WEIRD action in the back of the book? Stick with what was working, don't throw this FREAKY DANCE BATTLE in my face that makes no sense and doesn't work very well with the style of art you have chosen.

Enef, you need to give Scott Pilgrim a chance!!

Admittedly, the first one isn't the greatest, but it seems like O'Malley gets more into his groove by volume 2.  The whimsical stuff fits in much better with the more 'normal' plot in the second and third books.  These comics actually made me laugh out loud, which is very rare for me to do when reading comics.  I'm willing to bet that if you give volume 2 a try, you'll enjoy the series much more.

[Chair]

The Adventure's of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey
I need more Uncle Gabby and Mr. Crow ALREADY. I don't know why I always walked past Tony Millionaire's books in the comic store, probably because he had his comic styles (well in Sock Monkey at least) reminiscient to turn of the century comics, in art, inking style, dialogue and setting! Usually when people try to pull this off they do it terribly or put a distasteful twist on it, and I'm just not keen on it because I really do love turn of the century comics and art (20th century, not THIS turn of the century). But Millionaire has this craft down! He even does the word bubbles like they used to... uh yea I was amused by that. While The Adventure's of Sock Monkey quite charming with the (usually) well-intentioned rag dolls and their adventures, it has a morbid undertone which usually surfaces in the end haha oh my!
I just wish Millionaire's books at the store weren't so goshdarn expensive! haha!

I'm also reading the DMZ Friendly Fire, mmm.

[Kevin Birtcher]

The Damned Volume 1: Three Days Dead (Damned)
At Wizard last year we sat two tables away from the artist of this book.  I'd known his art from a Queen & Country arc already, and since he's good, and I buy practically everything Oni publishes, it was only a matter of time before I picked this up.  THEN I found it it's about gangsters and demons!  That's awesome!

Eddie is cursed to come back to live anytime someone touches his body after he dies.  He's rolls with some bad demons, and humans gunning for a bigger piece of the action.  When he's brought back to life to find a high level demon negotiating a truce between the gangs, he's tossed into a much bigger fire than he knows.

The art is great, the story is packed with action and intrigue, and the dialogue is natural and authentic.

I don't know if there's future volumes planned, but I hope so.