What COMICS have you been reading? ARCHIVE

My recent comic-reading diet has been pretty much all Jack Kirby, all the time. Reading "The Eternals" now.

dragonstout wrote:

Naw, actually I love a few Warren Ellis comics definitely, Planetary being one of them. Also loved his Authority run. Love them both so much that I have the Absolute editions. I also liked Nextwave and Stormwatch. But LOTS of his other shit drives me crazy (including Transmet, which I was shocked to discover at a reread which I couldn't even bring myself to finish), hence the mention in that other thread among other "vastly overrated mainstream writers". I also listed Mark Millar despite the fact that I liked his Ultimates, and Bendis despite the fact that I thought his Daredevil run was mostly good (but then, I like the character). Ed Brubaker's Captain America I wasn't too impressed by, but I liked Sleeper, and am curious about Criminal.

Forgive me, but it's name drop time. Ed's one of my best friends, and it's been fun to watch him rise from deadbeat slacker indie autobio guy to top of the mainstream comics heap. As someone who's always been critical of Ed's writing, it's also been gratifying to see it improve from project to project. Which is to say, the mainstream stuff is okay for what it is, but if you really want to read Ed at his best, read Criminal. He gives the big name jobs his all, but Criminal is a labor of love, and the work of a comics writer at the top of his game. Read it!

Whoops! I think in some of my posts I mixed up Brubaker and Bendis. Incognito also looks good, but I haven't checked it out yet.

I'm pretty burned out on the Big Two right now, especially with all the greedy superhero event crap.

I'd agree with the comments about Brubaker. I picked up the Captain America omnibus because I had heard a lot of hype about it, but felt it was only "ok". Picked up Sleeper and Criminal (in the sweet hardcover) and loved them.

Just padding the post count here - I actually liked Incognito better than Sleeper or Criminal, but they are all really good. Brain cramp that I didn't mention Incognito before.

Bought comics for the first time in long while yesterday, sort of on a whim. I saw that the new Serenity one-shot "Float Out" came out, so I had to pick that up.

How was it? Okay. It's basically 3 guys swapping stories about Wash, since they've decided to set out in a ship named in honor of him. There's not a whole lot of Wash in there, which is what I wanted, and they're a huge amount of ship/pilot lingo they never used in the series before, so the whole thing is a bit cumbersome. There is a tremendously HUGE twist at the end, and it serves as the first attempt to continue the story after the movie. If you want to know and have no intention on reading the comic, let me help.


Also picked up the first issue of the new Avengers run. I'm not into John. Romita Jr., and this book is no exception, but still a fun read with a cool ending. I'm willing to give it a few more issues, I just hope Romita doesn't stick.

I haven't been impressed with any of the Firefly/Serenity comics I've read. They're not bad, but not very good either.

What don't you like about Romita jr Browncoat.... he's one of my favorites because his style is unique, it's not realistic or magazine friendly (like say that putz Greg Land... now that guy I hate), and it has real character. He ahs real warmth, kick ass would not be nearly as well regarded without his warmth in illustration, same with enemy of the state. It's no coincidence that Millar's most successful projects have Romita illustrating. I think he's great with expressions too, his acting if you will.

Too bad about those Serenity comics. You have to be a fan to read them and even then they're just o.k.

I'm reading Glamourpuss still and still loving it. Dave Sim is a genius... and totally insane. He's lost it and it's clear in this comic but the shit he his good at; ie drawing and giving a good history of realism in the comic form, he's really, really good at. There is a strange subtext of hate throughout this series that's probably coming from his serious misogynism. But it's still the most fascinating thing I've seen in the comics format in years.. it's just too bad I have to support that wingnut to read it.

I also just re-read Fear Agent... man that is some seriously great unpretentious fun. It feels like a comic all the way through.

I can't quite put my finger on what I don't like about Romita. There's something that I find ugly about his work. I can't say I dislike him across the board, because there have been times where I found his style appropriate, like JMS's Amazing Spider-Man run...and he didn't by any means ruin the new Avengers book for me either.

As far as Serenity comics go, I rather enjoyed Better Days. It was a fun story to explore, what happens when the job goes right, and I liked the conclusions about Mal's nature made at the end. Plus the image of Book surrounded by women, money, booze, and cocaine is PRICELESS. Speaking of Shepherd Book, I'm still very excited about TALES OF THE SHEPHERD coming out later this year...finally, greatest mystery of the series will be told.

Not so much comic news as it is movie news, but it sounds like BATMAN: YEAR ONE will be getting an animated movie. Pretty cool, I've been largely impressed with DC's animated movies.

I don't like JRjr's art either. He started out as a bad Kirby imitation, and apparently skipped some art school classes. His artwork is occasionally competent-looking, but usually looks rushed and sloppy. He clutters up his pencils with useless lines in place of proper shading, and his perspectives are sometimes off. Look at the cover of that new Avengers #1. It looks like three different images that were badly photoshopped together. Thor and Iron Man in particular look strange... like they aren't just hovering above and behind their teammates, but like they're about to land on them in a very clumsy manner. And then there's the tiny Spider-man in the background, only because of the odd angles with Iron Man and Thor, Spidey just looks strangely small, not back in the distance.

JonJacob, you nailed it about those Serenity Comics. I'm a fan of the show and movie, but even so, I find the comics just okay. And I don't understand it. Whedon proved to my satisfaction that he can write comics well when he wrote Astonishing X-Men, but these Firefly characters are his own creation. The artwork was decent enough, but it's hard for some artists to work from real faces, so the characters often only sort of resembled the actors.

I read Batman: Gothic this week. It's an older one, from the early Legends of the Dark Knight days, by Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson. Damn good read, one of the more underrated Bat-stories (like Blind Justice). Just when I thought I had exhausted all the best Batman books, I find this little gem. If you can find it, give it a look.

I was checking out The Unwritten yesterday at the book store. I read Carey's novel The Devil You Know and enjoyed it. Unwritten has a really interesting premise themes of Through the Looking Glass/Harry Potter. Has anybody read it? Recommended?

I've also heard of Irredeemable, which sounds really good, any impressions of that?

I read my signed TPB of Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place.

I'm really impressed with Kubert because I met him and he's a really nice dude - but he has the art to back up warranting pimping out his art college at the Supanova convention. I'm starting to realise too much Osamu Tezuka had swayed me away from enjoying decent war comics - Tezuka was totally against war but I don't think Kubert and Easy Company are crazy about war either. Just goes to show too much manga in one sitting - especially when written by a dead old dude pacifist - really can shape you towards some good life lessons but bad judgemental decisions towards other genres of comics.

I also read Superman: Birthright - the one where Superman was for about ten or so issues a badass again despite not killing anyone. In one panel Superman shoots a gun at a dealer who sold weapons to school shooting people - and catches the bullet just before he dies - just so the dealer will know how the victims of those guns he sold will feel. Daymn, Son of Krypton - that's COLD. I haven't seen Superman do something that messed up yet still remaining good in my whole life. Just goes to show that with good writers Superman becomes not sucky.

Tezuka is amazing -- by my calculations, the guy drew over 150,000 pages of comics in his lifetime. The art form took a great leap forward in his hands -- he pretty much created the whole manga school in one fell swoop. Even though he was a pacifist, though, his stuff is full of action and violence, much of it employed to sensational effec. My favorite stuff is the Blackjack stories.

You'll find that almost all war comics have an anti-war message. It's rare to find one that just revels in the "joys" of battle without showing the horrific side of things.


JacobMartin wrote:

I read my signed TPB of Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place.

I'm really impressed with Kubert because I met him and he's a really nice dude - but he has the art to back up warranting pimping out his art college at the Supanova convention. I'm starting to realise too much Osamu Tezuka had swayed me away from enjoying decent war comics - Tezuka was totally against war but I don't think Kubert and Easy Company are crazy about war either. Just goes to show too much manga in one sitting - especially when written by a dead old dude pacifist - really can shape you towards some good life lessons but bad judgemental decisions towards other genres of comics.

I also read Superman: Birthright - the one where Superman was for about ten or so issues a badass again despite not killing anyone. In one panel Superman shoots a gun at a dealer who sold weapons to school shooting people - and catches the bullet just before he dies - just so the dealer will know how the victims of those guns he sold will feel. Daymn, Son of Krypton - that's COLD. I haven't seen Superman do something that messed up yet still remaining good in my whole life. Just goes to show that with good writers Superman becomes not sucky.