Comic Books

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Castor Troy
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Castor Troy » Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:12 pm

Any comic fans watch Linkara's Atop the 4th Wall series on That Guy With The Glasses?

Funny show that makes fun of bad comics. :asd: :up:
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Brad » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:14 pm

Oh hey. It's update time.

I've read quite a bit over the last week and a half. Probably the most notable would be Identity Crisis. This is a 7-part miniseries crossover event in the DCU that (AFAIK) helps set the stage for the 2007 Infinite Crisis. Identity is far less world-changing than Infinite, but is still a very impactful story. Not to give anything away, the story begins with a death, which leads to everybody questioning everything. It's very much a humanized tale where there's no easy answers. There is some seriously heart-wrenching stuff in here that in all honesty almost brought me to tears at one point. Both the writing and to a huge extent, the art, really got to me and made me truly feel for these characters. The closest I'd come to that kind of emotional impact was with Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men (who coincidentally wrote the intro to the Hardcover edition of this book) and certainly with JMS' Midnight Nation. So yeah, it's a little tough to recommend this book without having at least a decent amount of experience reading the DCU and having some familiarity with the characters, but so far it's gotta be my favorite of any crossover event title that I've read.

I also read Andre's copy of Batwoman: Elegy. I won't say much but it really made me excited for the new Batwoman series. I really fell for her character and the art style is just amazing. Highly highly recommended. It works well as a standalone book without much knowledge or continuity (other than maybe just knowing who Batman is).

I also read issue #1 of a new Ender's Game comic series, Speaker for the Dead, based on the novel of the same name. It's going to be a 5 issue run, and quite frankly, based on the content of the first issue, it really seems like it should be 10 issues or more. I'm extremely familiar with the source material so I already know what's going to happen, and the pace at which they're telling the story is going to be way too fast to really appreciate anything, unless they cut out some significant plot points. Either way, the art is really cool and it's definitely awesome to see how they're treating this universe (especially Jane, who's been one of my very favorite characters in literature for a while).

Another issue #1 I picked up on Wednesday was Brian Wood's The New York Five. Upon reading the intro page I realized that this is actually a sequel series to the original The New York Four. So I ended up going back and picking up the trade of that book to get myself caught up. It's one of the first slice-of-life comics I've read so far and it really reminded me a lot of the Nana manga. It's set in New York following the life of a young, shy girl named Riley who is starting school at NYU. There's not really a whole lot to say about the plot honestly. It's just a nice, fun little romp through New York. One of my favorite aspects of it are the little author intro's to each of the different areas of the city. You cal tell Brian Wood truly adores the city and wants to share his own experiences through the story.

Back to cape/cowl stuff, I've read the first 7 issues of the new Power Girl series (launched in the middle of Blackest Night I believe) and I'm really digging it. It's a nice departure from stuff like Batman in that you still get a superhero story, but it's much more "fun" than almost anything else out there. Power Girl is brash, witty, sarcastic, and kick ass and is a blast to read.
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Brad » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:46 pm

I'm reviving this thread. Deal with it.

A lot has happened in the last year. I had a probably 5 month period early last year where my interest in comics had waned. I chalked it up to the fact that I'm a "phases" kind of person. I have phases where I'm SUPER into something and I can't get enough....until I just couldn't care less anymore. It kinda made me sad since I had already bought a bunch of books and was felt like "well.. that was kind of a waste." But thankfully, my interest was piqued once again (don't really remember what did it exactly) and I've been on board ever since. The major influence to make me read more stuff was getting my iPad 2. Reading comics digitally has been an extreme delight. I know there's that special something about holding a paper and ink book in your hand, but when it comes to consuming the story from a practical standpoint, reading on a tablet is just considerably nicer than taking a stack of issues, all in bags and boards, figuring out what order they're in, going back and looking for a previous issue to look at something, etc. So yes. I am on board with the whole digital comics thing. Funny thing is though, I'm still buying my issues every week and picking up TPBs every now and then. Mostly from a collector's standpoint I guess.

I'm not going to go through and outline every single thing I've read in the last year. Suffice to say, I'm still much more in the DC camp than Marvel. The New 52 has totally worked for me (if you're unfamiliar, DC did an unprecedented move last September by completely cancelling (almost) every single on-going series they had, and rebooted them as 52 new #1's. The series are currently on issue #5. It was a tremendous success not only for DC but for the comics industry in general as it got a good amount of new readers into the stores, along with old readers who saw it as a chance to get back into the medium. So far among the rebooted series, the stand outs for me have been Wonder Woman, The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman (continuing off of the Batwoman: Elegy team referenced in the previous post), Action Comics, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing. There are several more that I'm reading that I'm enjoying, but those are the ones I pick up first when they come out. Aside from Batwoman, I haven't started reading any of the Bat-books, since I've been wanting to catch up on the Morrison Batman run pre-New52. The one unfortunate thing about the reboot is that they sold it as EVERYTHING was being started over from scratch and any new reader could pick up any new book and be totally fine. Eh... not so much. While not quite as bad as Green Lantern (which was literally a direct continuation of what had been going on, which is fine story-wise, and I've heard it's been great stuff, but bad for new readers), there's still a definite feeling of continuation of what had been going on. Which is unfortunate since apparently Batman (written by Scott Snyder) is easily one of the best comics being put out right now.

The other major new for me is that I am actually getting into comic book writing. I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to this stuff and I have a long way to go, but I feel like I have a really good idea on my hands. But a good idea does not a comic make (let alone, a story). My plan currently is to start out by writing some short, 5-6 page issues of stand-alone stories. Might sound simple, but in reality it's probably pretty tough, if you want to have solid story structure, but I think it'll be a good exercise.

As far as art goes, our very own Kikai_Saigono (Kiki) is going to be collaborating with me on this project. It's as much a learning experience for her as it is for me. While she may be a very talented artist, she doesn't have much experience with sequential art and visual storytelling. But the for sure thing is that we're both psyched about it and we both believe in the idea and the characters and where it can all go.

All that being said, anybody else reading comics? Making comics? Comic-curious?
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Fall_Child42 » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:55 pm

I just got
Incredible Change-Bots by Jeffery Brown

If I were to make comics, I would want to make comics like this.
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Re: Comic Books

Post by gotegenks » Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:35 pm

wow, i thought this was a new thread and i didn't bother reading the dates...

read the first post, scroll and skim through the first page of replies, see a post by godix.

-chills-

i've only read graphic novels like watchmen or series compiled into a book like the batman ones menioned on the first page, but i think i may start checking out things, at least some more batman stuff because i'm crazy about the stuff i have read and the nolan movies. i have a bunch of random ones laying around because the yugioh tournament i go to is hosted a comic shop and they have a thing if you're buying more than $5 worth of stuff you can ask and get a free comic so i may actually check those out sometime.

saw a wolverine manga (yea) at barnes n' noble once and i flipped through. it was more disgusting than it sounds.
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Brad » Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:39 pm

As I mentioned, I haven't started reading it yet, but according to all the press/reviews I've read and year-end "best of" lists, the current run of Batman by Scott Snyder is apparently absolutely brilliant. My guess is, previous continuity stuff PROBABLY doesn't matter much. As long as you know who Batman is, you'll probably be totally fine. I'm just being weird about not wanting to "leave behind" the previous run.
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Brad » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:31 pm

Three things.

One, you guys should back this project. http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Firelight-Isle
It's a creator-owned series written and produced by Paul Duffield. This guy holds a very pleasant place in my heart, considering that he was the artist behind Freakangels, which is the book that really started my whole obsession with comics, and it was his art style that first attracted me to it.

Secondly, I finally did catch up on Scott Snyder's current Batman run. It is absolutely fucking AWESOME. Issue 5 alone is easily one of the best single issues of comics I've ever read. The whole arc though just drips with style and deft craftsmanship. Frank Capullo's art is stunning and fits Snyder's vision for Gotham City and Batman perfectly. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it, even if you've never read a single issue of Batman (or any comic for that matter). If you enjoy really great storytelling and suspense, you will enjoy this.

Finally, I also caught up with Mark Waid's current run on Daredevil. Now, this is my first time reading anything Daredevil related, but I was familiar enough with the character and his backstory to understand what was going on. It also didn't hurt that I had read several comic sites' glowing reviews of his run, as it made it into countless year-end top 10's (even among lists where superhero series were left out completely). So yeah, another big recommendation for that.
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Knowname » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:52 am

gote wrote:see a post by godix.

-chills-
I imediately remembered this thread from the LAST time I was here roughly 9 months ago!! ... or maybe it was the time before that. Well somewhat lesser chills but still...
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Re: Comic Books

Post by Prodigi » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:34 am

Brad wrote:All that being said, anybody else reading comics? Making comics? Comic-curious?
As I've discussed with Andre multiple times since my last visit to you guys I've been toying on and off with an idea of my own that I'd really like to develop into a comic, it's just that with everything else I'm doing lately I don't feel I honestly have the time necessary to put into it. So I fully support what you're trying to do and really hope you pull it off :O

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Re: Comic Books

Post by ngsilver » Tue Jan 24, 2012 9:13 am

Brad wrote:All that being said, anybody else reading comics? Making comics? Comic-curious?
Generally, I've been mostly just an Archie Sonic The Hedgehog kind of guy. I collect every version of the comic and all of the mini-series that has come out. Though I haven't actually read any of it since issue 124. There was a time I couldn't afford to buy comics and when I finally could I went back and for about a year couldn't find a proper copy of 124 (that I could physically inspect before buying.) Since I didn't want to miss anything I stopped reading it until I could pick up 124. Though after I finally did pick it up I kind of stopped taking time to sit down and read, after all, I had quite a few issues of a backlog to go through.

Now I'm just too lazy to really bother delving into my box and reading all 200+ comics I'm behind (this also counts sonic universe, Sonic X, ect.) Though I really do need to sit back down again and re-catalog my collection so I stop buying multiple copies of more recent issues because I think I haven't picked the issue up yet based on the cover art but later find that I did.


I have a few ideas for comics of my own however. One I've been toying in my head for about 10 years now but never really got going with it. The other, is perhaps easier to accomplish as it is more a 4~6 panel style fun/comedic comic. However the biggest drawback for getting my ideas off the ground is my severe lack of drawing talent. I could get an artist to do the drawing, which is something I'm looking into for the fun comic, but I'm also no good and writing screenplay or direction. Getting what's in my head out into a form that an artist can build my vision is something I've yet to master. But we'll see.
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