A great big thread about comics

[Alex79]

Hello! Do you like comics? Let's talk about them. Here's what I'm currently reading.

Spider-Man

I've been reading comics for most of the 39 years I've been on this planet, yet had a huge, spider shaped hole in my knowledge of the medium. I read two books about 20 years ago, hated them and never went back. I recently decided to fix this, so am reading Spider-Man...

...from the start.

Yeah, started with the first ever issue back from the early 60s and plan on reading until I've had enough. I'm about 40 issues in so far and genuinely enjoying it. The art and writing is very of its time, but when you look past that the stories are good and it's interesting to see the origins of a character. I've never done this with a comic book before, not even the Bat, so interested to see how the comic develops over the years.

American Gods

This is the comic book adaption of probably my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, and it's excellent. It's midway through the 'second season' so far (if you're familiar with the story, Shadow is in Lakeside being Mike Ainsel). Really enjoying this each month, and if you like the book or the TV series it's definitely worth a look.

Nightwing (New 52)

As a life long Batman fan, it's surprising I've never bothered with any of the supporting characters own books, so I thought I'd check out Nightwings New 52 run, and I'm glad I did. Very worthy of his own series, the stories are every bit as good as his old mentors, really loving it.

Batman Incorporated: Vol 2

About halfway through the Nightwing New 52 run we learn a certain character is dead (won't name them, just in case people are bothered about spoilers!) and that the death occurs in the Batman Inc. Vol 2 books, so I thought I'd break off Nightwing to quickly run through this.

I read Volume 1 when I was on my Grant Morrison read through earlier this year (more on that after) but I thought I'd re-read Vol 1 before tackling Vol 2. I had hoped the first volume would make more sense a second time round. It didn't, not really. Vol. 2 is actually a little more coherent, but I maintain that Grant Morrisons work on Batman is an absolute hot mess of shit. Speaking of which...

Special mention to the GM Batman run...

Having tried some of his work years back and finding it a confusing mess, I thought I'd try it again this year. Now, I'm not stupid. I can read comics, and I can follow convoluted plots. I know Batman inside out, but Grant Morrison was the worst thing to ever happen to this series.

I read his entire run, from Batman & Son, following every major book up to Batman Inc. It's like they made thousands of panels, cut them out, threw them up in the air, and stuck them where they landed. There are moments of clarity - some of Batman & Son is readable, and parts of Bruce Wayne making his way back to present day were well done, but on the whole I think Grant Morrisons work is an absolute mess. He cannot write for shit. Final Crisis is probably the worst comic I've ever read. However...... glad I did.

Stuff I'll be reading next...

Akira - been meaning to read this for years.

Batman Knightfall Trilogy - first read this 20+ years ago and it's an all timer. New editions with a lot more content were released a while back, so looking forward to tackling those soon.

All-Star Western - fancied something a bit different. Part of the DC New 52 line, it only ran for a few books, but reviewed well. Cowboys innit.

So, anyone else..?

[Alex79]

Oh, almost forgot but wanted to mention, bargain of the day yesterday...

In B&M they've had these Batman sets for ages. It's a Joker and Harley Quinn figure packaged with the Batman graphic novel Mad Love. I checked Amazon and the set is around £25 or so (with an RRP of £35). B&M were selling it for £12.99. I had my eye on them but noticed they were never selling any - I don't think people realised they're a Ltd Ed set and worth a bit more than they were being sold for.

I'm pretty tight, and thought if I hold off they'll drop the price, and so yesterday after about two months of checking every time I went in, BOOM! £7.99! Only a £5 saving you say, but I thought they'd cut the price and they did. Figures for my also Batman obsessed children and a book for me

[Snowy]

I am not a big comics nut these days although I was in my past. One of my first jobs was working in a software shop in Aldershot, and there was a comics shop where a mate I had been at college with a few shops across, so I used to borrow comics from him to read every day.

I read all sorts (bear in mind this was at the back end of the 80's and the first Batman film was out about that time) - Watchmen, Maus, Sandman etc. I also read 200AD for yonks.

Recently I have bought some of the Judge Dredd compendiums, to go back to old favourites like the Judge Child and the Apocalypse War. I enjoyed them, and may bag some more, although they are quite pricey. I have also read the first three Walking Dead compendium volumes.

Probably the only original comics I still possess are a bagged issue 1 of Toxic (which I have just checked and in mint condition as mine is is worth about £200 so may flog that), and a Marshall Law graphic novel which is a long way from mint

[elgaucho]

Since i moved out of the UK i've ended up reading a lot less comics than I used to.

I still have a number of highly recommended reads that i try to get people i like (like you lot!) to read!


Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
Never has there been a better time to pick this up and read it.
Ellis does his usual gritty / grungy universe set in a far future world, where he pits our intrepid hero, Spider Jerusalem, representative of the free press, against a piece of shit president of the United States. What starts out as a number of mostly isolated stories and universe building eventually rises to a crescendo in the end, where so many different threads are tied up into one. Seriously. One of mt favourite independent books. Read it.

Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
On the absolute opposite end of the Transmet spectrum is Usagi Yojimbo, and it's anthropomorphic Rabbit wandering ronin hero.
Drawn and Illustrated by Stan in simple black and white panels, it tells the story of our hero as he wanders through Feudal Japan. Stan has a rare talent of being able to tell compelling and emotional stories with very few words and a great art style.
The books are easy to pick up, and the characters impossible not to love.
Stan puts loads of research into his stories, which are filled with historical tidbits and often nice appendices to his trades which explain the background and historical research he did.

Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike
This series of 24 books tell the story of an ousted Kogi Kaishakunin (shogun's executioner). When we meet him he's already ousted from his role and on the run from the shogunate, accepting assassination contracts in feudal Japan with his ultimate goal of revenge against the Yagyu clan that set him up in their search for power. I love the black and white panelling artwork, and the story itself is also compelling

Invincible by Robert Kirman (of Walking Dead dame)
Start reading this and you'll think you're reading a superficial superhero story with cutesy characters in happy land. The colour schemes are deceptive, as are the starter issues. And then Kirkman does what he does and twists everything around, and what was once a cutesy story is suddenly met with some very violent conclusions. I think it's lost a little fuel from some of the earlier chapters, but with 24 volumes and going, still a good read!

I'll post some more in due course.

[Stormbringer]

I have read a fair amount of Dark Horse's Conan (the barbarian) comic books, which I purchased and downloaded via my Dark Horse app.

I enjoy comics, but of all the things I enjoy spending money on, they're at the lower end of the list.

[Stormbringer]

I have a bit of spare cash at the moment, so I have just bought the first two episodes of Marvel's new Conan the Barbarian series, which started in January of this year.

I also just bought the first episode of their new Savage Sword of Conan series, which launched this month.

So much for not spending money on comics!

[Snowy]

Selling more boardgames Doug?

[Stormbringer]

Yep. ¬_¬

[Stormbringer]

I have read a fair amount of Dark Horse's Conan (the barbarian) comic books, which I purchased and downloaded via my Dark Horse app.

I discovered that Dark Horse lost the rights to publish Conan material in October 2018, which means they stopped selling all their Conan material then. Unfortunately I had failed to buy the last two series (Conan the Avenger and Conan the Slayer) so I never got to read them, and for a while I thought I never would.

HOWEVER, it now transpires that Marvel have bought the rights to publish all the Dark Horse Conan comics, and plan to do so over the comings months/years. I'm really happy about that, though unfortunately they're doing it very slowly, rather than all at once.

[Stormbringer]

When I was, I guess, about 14 years old, I really loved a video game that hardly anyone has heard of called Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm, which I bought from the PC game shelf in Woolworths one day because it had an amazing comic-book style front cover of a shiny red cadillac driven by some rugged Americans with guns, surrounded by freakin' dinosaurs.



I later found out it was loosely based on a series of comic books published in the 1980s called XENOZOIC TALES, by Mark Schultz.

I loved that game so much when I was about 14, I decided it was ABOUT TIME I became more familiar with the original comic book series. Thankfully, some publisher called Flesk Publications has collected them all into one massive paperback volume called XENOZOIC, so I bought it the other day with my birthday money. It's really good!

https://www.fleskpublications.com/books ... z-xenozoic

[Stormbringer]

Bought a couple of horror-themed comic books on Halloween:

Dracula: Son of the Dragon

and

Eternal Thirst of Dracula

(I'm rather a fan of Dracula, you might have guessed)

The former is a historical/fantasy narrative about Vlad the Impaler. It appears to be a fairly sizeable graphic novel; I feel like I've read quite a lot of it so far, but have only made it a third of the way through. It's quite good and the art is nice -- quite an interesting style -- but not especially exciting.

The latter is quite a bit different; it's set in the mid-70s and begins on a film-set in the Philippines where a Hollywood director is trying to shoot a horror film. Something about man-eating plants. Coincidentally, it transpires that Count Dracula has taken up residence at a secret mansion hidden in the jungle on a nearby island. Also coincidentally, the film director is actually a descendent of Abraham Van Helsing. Dracula wants to recruit him to help him fight a war against his own children; he's apparently produced an army of vampires who have got out of control and are now seeking to destroy their father. For protection, Dracula has his brides, as well as a gang of winged vampire gorillas. Yes, you read that right. It's pretty surreal, but also very gripping at the same time. This isn't a graphic novel though; it is a series of comic book issues, and is not yet complete. So far, four parts have been released. I like it a lot more than the other Dracula comic I bought.

[Alex79]

Sounds interesting, never read much horror stuff outside of Alan Moore's Lovecraftian books.

I'm currently making my way through the Batman No Man's Land saga - there's a lot of reading, over 100 issues!

Also still keeping up with American Gods, which is almost wrapped up now.

I'm also dipping in and out of the two Batman Elsewhere collections. The stories are hit and miss, but always interesting to see familiar characters in unfamiliar surroundings.

Oh yeah - also, Watchmen. Owned the book for over 20 years and never managed to get through it. I wanted to watch the new TV series though, so thought I should make the effort!