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Kevin Klemme
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Mycelia Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What COMIC BOOKS have you been reading?

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18 Oct 2021 10:11 #327276 by Shellhead
I have the first six trade volumes of Hellboy and enjoy them, but haven't pushed on since then. The public library had some BPRD and Abe Sapien stuff, but it veered into a Hell on Earth situation that I didn't enjoy nearly as much as the early Hellboy adventures.

Since the start of July, I have been growing through some tough personal stuff, so my recent comic book reading has been strictly comfortable re-reads of old favorites, alternating between X-Men (starting with Neal Adams) and Defenders (the original series featuring Dr. Strange, Namor, Hulk, Valkyrie, etc.). For their time, the Defenders issues are pretty good in terms of both art and writing, and the Avengers/Defenders crossover remains one of my all-time favorite comic book crossovers. It helped to have the same writer on both comics at the time. The X-Men run that I will be reading includes the famous Claremont/Byrne run, but even the Claremont/Wein/Cockrum issues preceding that are good quality '70s issues.

Remember that classic Twilight Zone episode about the guy who never has enough time to read? Then he survives some kind of apocalypse and goes to the library, looking forward to catching up on his reading. Then he accidentally breaks his glasses and can't read. My version is that I moved within walking distance of one of the best comic book stores in the state, but rarely buy comics anymore because I spend so much on maintenance and repairs for my house. It doesn't help that comics have gotten really expensive relative to the quantity of entertainment they offer. On the upside, I also live within walking distance of a public library that has a decent selection of comics. I've read about 80% of their comics over the last decade, but I could start requesting transfers of comics from other libraries in the same county.

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18 Oct 2021 11:36 #327278 by BillyBobThwarton

Disgustipater wrote: Random thoughts: Early on I had to train myself to actually look at the art and what was going on, as I would go too fast to get to the next dialogue. It was initially weird that the artists would change and it would look so different. I got over that fairly quickly though. I'm not sure if I'll get into other comics or not. I couldn't help thinking I would have just preferred it to be regular novels, so maybe the medium isn't for me. Though I'm glad I read Hellboy, and I think it was the perfect starting choice for me.


With so much potential media to consume, I have ended up focused on comics for at least the past 7 years. While their rising costs, intrusive ads, and variable paper quality try their best to get me to stop, a recent podcast interviewing Ed Brubaker helped me appreciate some of the appeal to me. He was talking about how, in writing the Fade Out, he hired a research assistant to pull photos from Hollywood in the late 40’s. What the art is doing is showing me things that I would not have conjured if I was just reading text, along with presenting set pieces that would be crazy expensive to put on film.
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18 Oct 2021 11:43 #327279 by Disgustipater

BillyBobThwarton wrote: a recent podcast interviewing Ed Brubaker helped me appreciate some of the appeal to me

Was it HDTGM?

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18 Oct 2021 13:29 #327283 by n815e
I’m “in the middle” of a bunch of series, including the Mignolaverse stuff, Judge Dredd, the new Blade Runner graphic novels, Flash Gordon’s early strips and Groo.

I just completed my Groo collection up to the last issue and started a reread.

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18 Oct 2021 15:54 #327289 by BillyBobThwarton

Disgustipater wrote:

BillyBobThwarton wrote: a recent podcast interviewing Ed Brubaker helped me appreciate some of the appeal to me

Was it HDTGM?


Yes, How Did This Get Made podcast. Was the first time I had listened to that podcast. I have always enjoyed Paul Scheer casually and didn’t know he had a few. I’m on the bubble as to whether I add it to the rotation. From what I heard of him and Jason M I might enjoy hearing about their media interests.

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18 Oct 2021 23:06 #327300 by Disgustipater

BillyBobThwarton wrote: Yes, How Did This Get Made podcast. Was the first time I had listened to that podcast. I have always enjoyed Paul Scheer casually and didn’t know he had a few. I’m on the bubble as to whether I add it to the rotation. From what I heard of him and Jason M I might enjoy hearing about their media interests.

When they do the Paul/Jason chats on the mini episodes, Jason usually talks about comics (or Star Wars).
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19 Oct 2021 13:30 #327311 by jason10mm
I've been reading some of the Witcher comics and enjoying them quite a bit. I just don't want them physically anymore, other than the rare favs like Hellboy, TMNT, Alan Moore stuff, Shirow, and GI Joe (alas the newish IDW[?} collected editions are already hard to get).

But I don't have a great way to read comics digitally. I don't have my surface anymore, which was great used in landscape mode. A traditional widescreen laptop just isn't the same. Most folks use ipads I suppose, but does anyone recommend a real cheap tablet for comics?

What I really need is a comic rental service. I get a box of stuff, read it for a month, then send it back and a new box comes. That way I can read the stuff I like but don't accrue shelfs of it over time.

This....library....thing, how does it work? :P

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19 Oct 2021 13:45 - 19 Oct 2021 13:48 #327312 by Shellhead
According to this article, 97% of public libraries in the U.S. have graphic novels and/or comics:

EDIT: [deleted: bad link]

The first time I saw either in a public library was in 1992. That library had Watchmen on the shelf, in the science-fiction section.

EDIT: TIL that some public libraries also offer e-comics. Check with your local library to find out which format they use and how to access it.
Last edit: 19 Oct 2021 13:48 by Shellhead. Reason: bad link
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19 Oct 2021 16:29 #327315 by BillyBobThwarton
I’m getting a little sick of my storage situation. When I was messing with it last week I saw stuff I was so happy to see adjacent to material I would toss if I didn’t grow up in a lower income situation (hard to escape old habits). My aspiration is to give collected issues to modern day versions of my younger self but I haven’t figured out how.

Regarding going digital, print is just so much better of an experience for me. Further, I look forward to seeing the comic shop patrons on a weekly basis.
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19 Oct 2021 16:49 #327317 by Shellhead
I was raised on individual issues of print comics, which are apparently now known as "floppies" by some fans. But I sold off a major chunk of my collection many years ago, and have since replaced some of those issues with trade paperbacks, which has become my favorite format. I do have a CD-ROM collection that contains the first 40 years of the Avengers series, including all the annuals but none of the giant-size issues, spin-offs, or limited series. I love that roughly 500 comics fit on a single disc, but I don't love reading those issues on my desktop. A laptop is worse, because I dislike the touchpad, and I am either using the laptop just like a desktop or I have this uncomfortably hot weight resting on my lap. Like Jason, I might be happier with a digital format if I had a cheap tablet for e-comic reading. I am also not a fan of the very large hardcover omnibus format, which I call "the wristbreaker."

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19 Oct 2021 17:55 #327318 by DarthJoJo

Shellhead wrote: EDIT: TIL that some public libraries also offer e-comics. Check with your local library to find out which format they use and how to access it.

I’ve had pretty good luck with comics through Hoopla, a library service. I’ve read IDW’s TMNT and Tom King’s Vision through it. I can’t remember if I used my wife’s iPad or old Fire tablet, but if the latter, those are cheap enough to be dedicated ereaders.
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20 Oct 2021 10:46 #327330 by Ah_Pook

n815e wrote: I’m “in the middle” of a bunch of series, including the Mignolaverse stuff, Judge Dredd, the new Blade Runner graphic novels, Flash Gordon’s early strips and Groo.

I just completed my Groo collection up to the last issue and started a reread.


Man I have so many issues if Groo in my old box of comics in the closet. Most of the stuff in there is garbage, but I love me some Groo.
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26 Oct 2021 11:34 #327444 by Shellhead
Prompted by this thread, I went to the local library for the first time in several months, and found that they had some new comics. Or, new in condition, anyway.

Luke Cage: Retribution (Epic Collection). This is a full-color trade paperback reprint of the first 22 issues of the Hero For Hire/Power Man comic series of the '70s. It's better than I remembered, with a rich cast of characters in a blaxploitation Harlem. Black Panther was Marvel's first black hero in 1965, but Luke Cage was the first black superhero to star in his own series, in 1972. This volume includes one of my favorite panels from the entire decade:



Years ago, I read the first three trade paperback volumes of Black Science. Now it seems that my local library has the whole run, so I have just read the first four volumes. This series by Rick Remender debuted just four months after the animated series Rick and Morty, and covers similar terrain in a different manner. Rick (of Rick and Morty) is a brilliant and sociopathic scientist who discovers cross-dimensional travel and goes on many darkly humorous and disgusting adventures across the multiverse, often clashing with alternate versions of himself. Grant McKay (of Black Science) also invents cross-dimensional travel, and gets a group of people stranded in another dimension when someone sabotages his device during the first trip. Grant isn't a sociopath, but he had a traumatic childhood that led him to make his own poor decisions as an adult.

Black Science is pretty amazing. The pace is frantic, but the characters have considerable depth and frequently clash with one another due to very different priorities. Some interesting philosophical and ethical questions are raised. There is a lot of action, and the deaths carry more weight than usual for comics. The artwork by Matteo Scalera is rich and stylized. It's one of the best comics I've read in the last 10 years.

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26 Oct 2021 15:23 #327455 by jason10mm
Those comic panels illustrate the thing that drives me most crazy about comics.

The seemingly random bolding of words] without any real pattern. Is it to emphasize those words, add some type of inflection or what? Maybe letterers just get bored after a while?

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26 Oct 2021 15:34 #327459 by Shellhead

jason10mm wrote: Those comic panels illustrate the thing that drives me most crazy about comics.

The seemingly random bolding of words] without any real pattern. Is it to emphasize those words, add some type of inflection or what? Maybe letterers just get bored after a while?


Lettering in comics was done by hand for a very long time, and the bolding has often seemed random. My personal theory is that the bolded words were ones that were initially a little messy and got bolded as part of the clean-up. Modern comic books are generally using digital lettering, so the bold font should be intentional and likely reflect emphasis by the speaking character. In the case of Black Science, I'm sure that the bolding of the phrase Black Science was intentional on more of a meta-level.
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