What COMIC BOOKS have you been reading?

If you want to see what Andy is talking about, take a look at Quitely's work on All-Star Superman or any of the Morrison Batman & Robin books. There are numerous examples, but none more evident than how he draws Dick Grayson, who is filling in as Batman while Bruce Wayne is...off somewhere. Everything about the way he draws he Grayson Batman is more relaxed, his body language is different. The costume hangs differently on him. It's a character acting as Batman and that is exactly what Quitely capture. The cover of the first issue really shows this too- you've got the "softer" Batman and the much more severe, psychopathic Damian Wayne Robin. It's not just in facial expressions or poses, it's in the line work itself.

JJ, good comments but let's take, for example, when Rick runs into Lori & Carl for the first time. In the show, I have to say that was the highlight of Season One for me. Super emotional, super effective. I was moved (maybe to tears I can't remember). But in the comic book it's practically a non-event. I dunno, stuff like that. Also sometimes the order of what people are saying to each other makes little sense. Like i can't believe this is conversation. I don't have this issue in the show.

Anyway, I'm going to try one of his novels now for fun. It's called RISE OF THE GOVERNOR and is also a Walking Dead work (just not a graphic novel). I'll let you know how it goes...

dragonstout wrote: JonJacob said that "in comics, the actors are only as good as you make them"...I've got to disagree: in comics, the artist is responsible for the actors. Part of what drove me nuts about Snyder's Batman is that Capullo's acting *sucked*, the characters' body language and facial expressions either didn't match or wildly over-acted the dialogue. Will Eisner, I love the Spirit, but in his graphic novels, boy howdy does he overact. Compare to someone like Frank Quitely in the mainstream, who's one of the best actors I think the mainstream's ever seen, or Dan Clowes.

I don't disagree with the point of what you're saying. I don't, however, think Quitely is as great as you make him out to be or that Tony Moore is a particularly bad actor. I leave the obviously bad acting to Greg Land. I actually believe that Tony Moore is one of the big reasons Kirkman is so successful, Kirkman can get away with very little writing and simple stories because Moore brings it home so well.

Acting in comics is a big deal for the artist but we still bring a lot of that acting to the table ourselves. Somewhere between our two points lies the real truth.

Will Eisner over acts.... sort of but it suits his work. The turning of little events into a grand jewish opera sort of requires a bit of over acting.

Truth is, I don't remember at all whether Tony Moore is a good or bad "actor", he definitely might be good, I just partially objected to the idea that the reader is SOLELY responsible for the acting. I agree that the reader does do a lot of that work, just like in them books without pictures. I sometimes wonder whether differences in enjoyment of things are due to my having a different brain-actor.

Cool observation about Quitely's Batman and Robin, I'll have to pay attention (though the beauty of it is that I really *won't*). I was specifically thinking of All-Star Superman, the most obvious thing being the fact that he actually makes it completely believable that no one would guess that Clark Kent is Superman, because they looks *so different* despite having technically the same face. Also, watching those bits of the All-Star Superman movie a couple days ago really reminded me of how great Quitely draws Lex Luthor, his rage and his frightening poise.

Black Barney wrote: Just finished reading Book One of the Walking Dead. I gotta say, it was pretty disappointing. The writing isn't great and there is just no drama at all. The show is far more dramatic and that's too bad.

Same here, we were probably reading it at the same time. I borrowed books 1-2 (trades 1-4) from my buddy friday night, and I'm a bit more than halfway in book 2 right now. I completely agree with you on book 1, it wasn't that great. I was reading Kirkman's concluding page where he was saying he wanted to write his own never-ending zombie stories because he always hated how the movies ended. Do we really want to keep reading this bleak crap? The recurring drama gets a bit old, even if the changing locale tries to keep it fresh.

But things do pick up a bit in the next book when they try to settle into the prison and it's interesting to see how they're trying to establish some semblance of order to better survive.

That said, I haven't watched the tv show at all.

After stewing on it for a week, I can tell you, Bob, that IN MY OPINION the show is clearly better. It's really well executed. Feeling of dread, lots of drama, violence, horror, etc. It's really well done. I only have read Book One (which covers the first two comics I think) but so far the show is far better.

My biggest zombie-fan friend has read all of them and also thinks the show is better (this doesn,t mean anything, I just wanted to point out that reading all the comics may not make me change my opinion). I don,t think TV shows (or movies for that matter) are always better than books or graphic novels (just in case someone wants to argue that they will always be better because of the medium).

But yeah, try the show.

I,m reading a Walking Dead novel now (Rise of the Governor) and so far it's ok. I don,t know why the writer goes into a Biology major every time a pick-axe breaks some walker's head.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE ABOUT ZOMBIE STUFF: One thing that should never happen (hasn't happened in any of the good zombie movies, hasn't happened on Walking Dead tv show, but HAS happened in the Walking Dead comics and the novels). When they refer to the living dead as 'zombies.' The pop culture use of this term is mostly from Romero's Night of the Living Dead so when someone uses it in one of these movies, books or comics, it means that they are living in a world where Romero's Night of the Living Dead exists and then it doesn't make sense that they don't constantly refer to that movie for what is happening. Like, ''oh, is this cuz of a meteor like in Night of the Living Dead?' or 'remember, you gotta shoot them in the head!' and such...

I think it's more effective horror if they don't refer to them as zombies but are truly confused and you buy into the idea that they have no idea what's going on. Much scarier that way.

But then there's Return of the Living Dead, where the characters actually talk about Night of the Living Dead.

I totally understand how BB can feel that way. It makes sense but I'm the exact opposite. The show is too emotional, too serious, too ponderous and slow, for the themes it does. In the comic I move those things at a pace I'm comfortable with. As for the word zombie, I could care less if its used or not. It's an old word and was popular in the States as early as the 1930's.... Romero did not invent it but even if they do reference the more recent films... I could care less really if the story is good enough. I think that for me the actors in the show (never finished the second show in season 2 cause I got bored of it) are far too heavy. They bring more emotion to the screen than I need. In the comic I get some choice as to how much is there.

Now I'm no huge fan of either and I think that possibly Brit is the best thing Kirkman's done with Invincible close but too long for its own good.


I pulled out my All Star Superman comics today to test Andy and Barnes who keep going on about how great it is. I have the first 11 issues, don't remember why I stopped buying it, I think I left the country for a bit and never picked the series back up. I any case I remember liking it a lot, but not to the level that Andy seems to but after the talk about acting I figure I should look at it again.

The thing I remember most is that the first page was awesome, the best chuck in a quick origin story I've ever read. 8 words, 4 panels... I still remember that. The rest seemed ok but I'm due for a re-read.

Michael Barnes wrote: But then there's Return of the Living Dead, where the characters actually talk about Night of the Living Dead.

Best zombie movie ever. Dan O'bannon is a hero of mine.

You know, it all comes around full circle here...Andy's dad did some concept art for that picture.

There's only one issue of All-Star Superman you're missing. It's a really great series, almost kind of a victory lap for the character. It touches on every aspect of Superman, and does the whole "superhero as modern mythology" thing better than pretty much anything else, ever. It's such a human, moving story with a tone unique in the Superman canon- a sense of fatalism, reflection on mortality, and maybe even a little regret.

You should definitely follow it up with the latest Action Comics run...very different, but also among the best Superman I've ever read.

But yeah, All-Star is _the_ best Superman I've ever read.

I have mixed feelings about All-Star Superman, though I overall like it quite a bit. The artwork is sometimes amazing, especially the cover to issue #6. But other times, I find myself distracted by the ugly faces and bloated figures that Quitely often draws. Morrison really gets the characters right and introduces some neat ideas, but lost me in issue #10 when he sprinted through too much story in too few pages. The fast pace of issue #6 also muted the emotional impact of the tragic twist.

Black Barney wrote: I,m reading a Walking Dead novel now (Rise of the Governor) and so far it's ok. I don,t know why the writer goes into a Biology major every time a pick-axe breaks some walker's head.

It gets better about half-way through. The early part of the book does get hung-up on trying to explain the outbreak in minute detail; I think it's because this is supposed to explain how and why characters choose to gear up and kill. However, it's pretty pointless once you get the basic point. I found myself skimming long sections as a result. The pace does pick up about half-way through. I've only started reading the comic series, but I think the 2nd half the book is a lot more interesting as it seems to tell a backstory that is completely absent from either the print or TV series.

I liked it enough to pick up the 2nd book {Road to Woodbury?; the title escapes me]. Unfortunately, I got into the TV series and print series enough to realize that the backstory in question is about a character who turns out to be a sadistic scumbag. I was a little bummed by that as I wasn't in the mood at the time for a whole "man's inhumanity to man" thing and put the book down and moved on to other things for a while.

On an unrelated note, my beloved wife gave me an iPad3 for Xmas. I'm just starting to fuck around with it now and get it set-up. Anyone have a recommendation for a comics reader for the thing? I've got a pile of .cbr and .cbz files that I'd been reading on my PC via Calibre, but I'd like to transfer the lot to my iPad. iBooks, as an app, seems to totally blow. I've got Kindle for the iPad set-up (as I've had a KindleDX for some time) but haven't tried that as a comix reader [and I'm not sure that's one if its capabilities anyway]. Any input would be most appreciated folks...

Get CloudReader which will read cbr and cbz books with no trouble.

It's free, I use it and it's pretty well supported.

If you install dropbox and dump in dropbox loads of cbr's, you can download from dropbox, open in Cloudreader and then delete when you've read it. You'll still have them in dropbox but not filling up your ipad with stuff you've already read.

I hate CloudReader. The way it makes everything one gigantic scan SUCKS, the panning is terrible, the organization is non-existant.

Go balls out high roller and spend five bucks on Comic Zeal. It's a very well-supported app that is by far the best way to read scans on your iPad or iPhone. You can organize books into "long boxes", it shows you when you've finished reading something by putting a "bag" on it, and it's pretty easy to manipulate your collection. It interfaces directly with DropBox (which you absolutely have to have to do all of this). The only issue I have with it, and this may be because of something to do with my devices or what's on them, is that I sometimes can't get larger scans to import from DropBox over to Comic Zeal. They just hang up and spin on forever. So those have to go to accursed CloudReader.

If you want to buy comics on the iPad, Comixology is the only way to go. Great scans, great sales, and you can look at anything you buy on any device.

I just got a Kindle Fire for my birthday. Does anyone know a good app for comics on there? Is that even something people use it for?