|
The Japanese movies already jabbed at 1998 Godzilla. In Giant Monsters All-Out Attack they officially demote the creature to "Zilla" and in Final Wars they have Godzilla fight Zilla and totally wreck his poo poo instantly.
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2012 16:47
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 03:53 |
|
|
What's really great about Belit she's actually drawn accurately based on Howard's description. Most artists draw her according to this cover of Weird Tales but it's a terrible depiction. Belit is a Shemite with fierce eyes, ivory pale skin, and she's supposed to be a fatalistic badass and this series succeeds on that part. Hopefully it will set the standard for her future appearances.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2012 19:09
|
|
|
friendo55 posted:Just a quick question. According to Previews, no.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2012 15:29
|
|
|
I haven't read anything by Mark Waid except Kingdom Come but Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom was horribly boring. The pacing was all over the place and felt like a two issue story compressed in a single volume. Good art, terrible writing.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2012 04:21
|
|
|
I mentioned liking MIND MGMT before but #4 today has cemented it as a series to really watch out for. The plot flows at a consistent pace and it has one of the best narrative voices I've seen in a while.bairfanx posted:Man, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I do agree that it feels fast-paced, but I prefer that to having to wait six issues to find out who our cast is. I'll give it a second shot when #2 hits, only because I love Rocketeer, but the first page immediately soured me for the rest of the book. al-azad fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Aug 23, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2012 04:59
|
|
|
I never saw myself creating a Comixology account. That ended this morning.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 25, 2012 13:01
|
|
|
Kull the Conqueror posted:OK I was the optimistic one but now I feel like we're never going to see Secret again. I can't find anything about what's going on with it. I'm in the same boat about Frankenstein Alive, Alive. The first issue came out three or four months ago and #2 was supposedly supposed to come out yesterday. Nothing. IDW doesn't even have it listed on their website.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 18:48
|
|
|
Maakies has apparently ended today and that sucks. Maakies is a long running comic strip by Tony Millionaire about Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby. The two of them drink (DOOK DOOK DOOK!), fight, vomit, and discuss existential things while dying horribly or coming close to death. It's a lot better than I can explain it, trust me. It feels like an old school newspaper strip except not totally boring. If I had to compare it to anything it would be Ren & Stimpy for adults... but not that awfully lovely Ren & Stimpy cartoon for "adults." If you want it in book form grab Premillennial Maakies and Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury. Fantagraphics' will probably do some big collection now that it's done.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2012 04:01
|
|
|
Madrox posted:Check the Maakies site again. Apparently, Tony was just playin' with our emotions... Wow, what an rear end in a top hat! I bet he even changed the Wiki page to state that it ended (although it's gone now).
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2012 16:57
|
|
|
After a slow start, The Massive #4 really surprised me. It's really story dense, something the first three issues lacked, it explains the protagonist's pacifism, introduces a potential antagonist who's the perfect foil, and there's a new artist with really heavy inking and solid colors. I hope this artist sticks with it because it matches the tone of the comic more than the last guy with vectorized lines and textures slapped on everything. A couple people posted here saying they didn't like the art and story didn't hook them. Give #4 a look because it really reinvigorated my opinion after a completely lackluster third issue.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2012 20:48
|
|
|
Point of Impact is kind of cool. It introduces a bunch of characters and wastes no time setting up the story. There's like three plot threads in the first issue and they're all set up perfectly.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2012 20:56
|
|
|
No word on other Godzilla projects AFAIK. The only thing I remember him saying about future plans is doing some kind of pull out cover for the collected edition if it ever gets there.Benny the Snake posted:Saga vol. 1 is availible now for $10. Unless they do it for their more popular series like Invincible, I've never seen Image put ads in the middle of their books. And I respect them for that because nothing pisses me off more than going from an emotionally moving page to a lovely ad. At least Dark Horse uses an entire page, double-sided, for ads but I've seen comics where the ad will take up one side of the page just to spite people who bind their own books.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2012 23:23
|
|
|
The Conan comics from Dark Horse definitely have ads in the middle. Maybe because it's a licensed property or a higher profile book?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2012 02:35
|
|
|
Something really caught my eye in this month's Previews. Abhishek Singh's Krishna: A Journey Within. It's an original, 300 page graphic novel about the Hindu god. It's not often that I'm interested in a comic for the artwork alone but hooooooooly shiiiiiiiiiiiit. There could be no dialog and I would still pick it up as an art book. Amazon has it up for pre-order at 30% off cover price. Previews says it hits December 5.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2012 19:32
|
|
|
WickedIcon posted:So I've been reading Crossed since I figure, hey, 'tis the season. Are you reading the original Crossed? Because that's child's play compared to the spin-offs. The webcomic opens with a man loving a still living dolphin in the blowhole while cutting its guts out. It's the scene I show friends who see Crossed and ask me "what's this about?"
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2012 23:22
|
|
|
Mind MGMT closed the first story arc today and I couldn't be excited to get more. It's definitely near the top of my favorite new comics this year. I also picked up Brandom Grahams Multiple Warheads and I have no idea what the gently caress is going on. 48 pages of an organ hunter lopping off heads and a guy with a wolf dick driving across punny countryside with his girlfriend Sexica. Graham has a fantastic visual style but his absurd lettering pulls me out of the story. I have the same feeling reading King City and it's the biggest hurdle keeping me from finishing it. If I can manage to actually read what people are saying I can't tell if they're saying words or making noises. Like, is "sputz" a curse word? If it is, why do they still use conventional curse words? Why is "SHINX!! in a word balloon when it's the sound of swords being drawn? Or is it, I don't know?! James Stokoe uses a similar outlandish lettering style but I've never had trouble distinguishing his speech from other noises. Stokoe also wisely uses a universal vocabulary for his onomotopoeia. When you read "KSH KSH KSH" you know poo poo's going down.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2012 00:14
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:18 months, according to discussion in the other thread. Just in time to tie into the next film!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2012 02:51
|
|
|
Yeah, Miller used to be top of the world. Ronin is fantastic and obviously a huge influence for Samurai Jack, one of my favorite cartoons. I got started with his Darrow collaborations so imagine my teenage mind being blown when I picked up the source material for the Rusty cartoon and it turned out to be the Astro Boy vs. Godzilla crossover I always wanted. And it wasn't just Darrow's art that made Hardboiled and Rusty great, it was Miller's dialog as well. I loved the rambling of Nixon as he tried to reassure himself everything was normal while he destroyed half the city. And the evil monologue of the monster in Rusty as he liquifies people and turns them into twisted versions of himself still gets to me. Want to scare my pants off? Put some body horror in your work and I'm done.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2012 07:44
|
|
|
I just made the greatest comics purchase of the year right here. Does anyone here like artsy anthologies like Blab! or Kramers Ergot? Then check out Kolor Klimax. It's a 250 page anthology of comics from Northern European artists in a dizzying variety of artistic styles. The best part? Amazon has it listed brand new for $2.88 USD.
al-azad fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Nov 3, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2012 22:20
|
|
|
Kunzelman posted:This makes me not want to buy this book. Your endorsement is literally worse than me just stumbling on it out of the blue. I don't mean to sound condescending, it's just a really good well put together book that's cheaper than a weekly rag and it hasn't been brought up at all. Here, I'll edit my post but definitely give the previews on Fantagraphics a read through. al-azad fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Nov 3, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2012 22:37
|
|
|
Shageletic posted:I suppose an analogue that occurred to me reading it was R rated Miyazaki. A complex and sometimes near incomprehensively inhabited world, a frightening level of creativity, and great dollops of heart right in the middle. If you can't tell I loved Multiple Warheads. You've got to be willing to roll with the punches but poo poo its rewarding. With this and Prophet Brandon Graham might be single handedly revitalizing my love of comics. I definitely agree with this. In 48 pages he created a unique, alien world that's instantly believable with practically zero time spent world building. King City and even Prophet are comics that require no excess exposition. No character or disembodied voice sits the reader by the "campfire" to draw attention away from what's really important. But the guy's greatest weakness is how rough everything is. If the lettering was tighter and things just a tad more focused I could really get behind him. Oddly, I think Prophet is his most readable work but it's not as visually interesting as MW or KC in my opinion.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 4, 2012 21:58
|
|
|
Gavok posted:Bulletproof shoves the bodies into a car, throws it off a cliff, we see the funeral and then a panel of he and his girlfriend sitting silently and awkwardly in the kitchen. BTW the entirety of this happens in a single page. Kirkman... I don't know about Kirkman. He thinks cartoon gore and killing off people on a whim is compelling storytelling.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2012 01:21
|
|
|
I was in the bookstore today and came across a beautiful art book called The Lost Art of Ah Pook is Here. It's a collaboration by novelist William S. Burroughs and artist Malcolm McNeill, someone I've never heard of but judging by his work I need to dig some things up. They proposed a literal graphic novel in the early 70s that went over everyone's heads and never got published. The work here is raw but even in unfinished form the art tells an apocalyptic story of urban decay and moral corruption amidst detailed drawings of corporate advertisements and mass orgies. It's very frank in its presentation, completely unfiltered by any attempt to "clean it up" for an audience. And yet, it's very sincere in its presentation. This is two people trying to tell a story, not sell a story if that makes any sense. It certainly stands in stark contrast to Kirkman who has a woman brain an old lady with a loving frying pan. In light of Ware's Building Stories, a lot of the experimental storytelling present in that book was first proposed right here. Burroughs imagined the work as a single "fold-out" painting with images and text as appropriate. The art is presented in sweeping landscapes and it's head over heels of stuff back then (hell, it's better than most of the poo poo today). If you like art books and learning about comics history you can't do wrong with this book. Better preview at Fantagraphics al-azad fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Nov 16, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2012 07:35
|
|
|
Holeee poo poo, Frankenstein Alive Alive #2 came out today. When did I last post about it... May 11th. Yeah. It's still a fantastic comic. I've said in the past that I'm not fond of a writer picking up an established literary characters. I mean, I feel less ambivalent towards mythological characters, but public domain characters are in that realm of "why bother" for me. FAA shoves my foot in my mouth. It just wouldn't be the same if it was an original monster unrelated to the classic story.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2012 01:47
|
|
|
root posted:Yes. Glory and Prohpet are both awesome. Buy them, read them, love them. Speaking of Keatinge what do you think of Hell Yeah!...? It's not bad but it pretty much fealt like one big extended prologue to me. Hello! I know what my Secret Santa is getting.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2012 01:28
|
|
|
bairfanx posted:Well, if this isn't depressing as poo poo and a good reason to encourage others to read indie books you love: I can't believe Comixology takes half after Apple's cut. The service they provide is a non-refundable distribution and reading platform and they have zero risks except quality assurance. Bandwidth costs are totally negligible for a company of that size. Comixology should be taking 30, not loving 50. If I was doing digital comics I would make my own reading app so I could keep that extra buck-fifty but the sad thing is that customers are apprehensive towards other subscription services. Just like people will pass up cheaper deals on Amazon or GMG because it doesn't come with a Steam key, people will pass up your service because it's not Comixology. It's a hosed business and you can't break into it without selling some kind of PDF directly from your own secured store.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 2, 2012 07:19
|
|
|
bairfanx posted:Honestly, I think they are apprehensive because of convenience more than anything else. Correct, and I'm one of those people who go to Steam before anything else. But I try to buy my indie stuff directly from the creators if the option is available and I'll be doing it more often now that I see how much creators are sapped on the cover price. I was always curious how Amazon could afford to charge next to nothing on their books and how creators are okay with their material going for 50% off MSRP day 1. Then I looked at Amazon's royalty service and it's either 70% royalties for the current list price (whatever Amazon sells it for) or 35% for the MSRP regardless of discounts. Comixology takes independent submissions, right? They need to cultivate indie goodwill. Indie books sell way fewer copies than the mainstream stuff so the profit margins between 30% and 50% aren't going to be that great. Might as well just make it 30% like every other distributor.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 2, 2012 09:10
|
|
|
Crisco Kid posted:Hey y’all, I recently helped my local shop put on their third regional comic convention to great success. On the last day the manager came up to me and basically said, “Hey, I know you read a bunch of indie stuff. Make a list of books we should have in the store and come by next week.” This post is going to sound rambly because I'm just going to post whatever comes to mind so bear with me. I'll try my best to pick stuff that's still in print. I'll start with King City. It's by Brandom Graham so all you have to say is "The first major work by the Prophet guy!" I think it's popular enough that you guys probably already stock it. I think Chris Ware is pretty hot right now and his best work (Jimmy Corrigan and the newspaper sized Acme Novelty Library collection) are still in print. His recent Building Stories is a massive box of goodies and while Ware is difficult to get into if you're new to comics I think a lot of people will be attracted to the beautiful contents of BS (heh) if they're not immediately scared away. Aside from Blacksad, there were two comics that got me seriously into the medium and those were the Flight anthology and Jason's comics. The Flight anthology is family friendly, visually distinct, and very appealing series of anthologies that also serve as a great primer to a lot of independent creators. Jason draws "funny animal" comics that have a very dry tone. I was drawn to his work because the art is simplistic and appealing but behind his cartoon animals are really emotional stories. His work is definitely not for kids. Now I think any fan of capes, especially golden age stuff, is required to read I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets and You Shall Die by your Own Evil Creation. Fletcher Hanks was basically a drunk bum who ignored his family to draw escapist superhero stuff about immortal, perfect beings who exact brutal merciless punishment against evildoers. It's like a "What If" Superman or Wonder Woman were amoral fascists. It's both a biography of a sad lonely man and a snapshot of late-30s comics where people were desperate for anything to take their minds off how hosed up the world was at the time. It's fascinating work that's entertaining and interesting as a historical piece. I gave a brief review earlier this year but one of my favorite kid-friendly stories of 2012 is Hilda and the Midnight Giant. It's an A4 format, full color, hardcover book with appealing art. The story is fun (and kind of depressing but what isn't in indie comics?) and I think it's one of the few genuinely all-ages comics that I could recommend to someone age 8 to 80. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something like the best kids stories are enjoyed by adults and that couldn't be more true with this. On the subject of Nobrow, they printed the collected version of Jessie Moynihan's Forming (kinda NWS). It tells the story of mankinds early years prior to the great flood and the myriad of alien creatures and god-like beings that influenced the Earth. Moynihan currently works as a storyboard artist on Adventure Time so there's your selling point right there! Just be sure to advertise it to older teens because it's definitely not for kids. I would go on but I'm trying to stick with stuff that I think have a fair chance of selling and are currently in print. Personally, I think the best way to get people into alternative comics is by offering them small press works from popular creators. Everybody knows about Frank Miller and Batman/Sin City/300 but how many people know about Hard Boiled, Big Guy and Rusty, Ronin, and Martha Washington. Sandman is wicked popular but Gaiman's illustrated novel Stardust should attract a comics crowd as well as his darkly surreal The Tragic Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. Alan Moore is famous for a lot of things but you can now call me a fan of his 80s British material like D.R. and Quinch, Halo Jones, and A Small Killing. I've been hunting around Kyle Baker's work. He's probably famous in the mainstream for his Deadpool stuff but Baker wrote an amazing Plastic Man run that's been collected as Plastic Man: On the Lam. It's beautifully drawn, almost like a bouncy cartoon, and all ages to boot. Why I Hate Saturn is probably his most respected work but The Cowboy Wally Show is something I'm slowly getting into. al-azad fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Dec 2, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Dec 2, 2012 22:31
|
|
|
Kull the Conqueror posted:Without a doubt, Stumptown #4 has one of the most incredible action sequences I've ever read in a comic book. It's got such a masterful understanding of the medium. Ugh, did #4 come out this week? My shop guy needs to get on top of things.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2012 09:47
|
|
|
Slackerish posted:I'm trying to read a comic series that takes place predominately on the sea. Pirates, sea-like adventures, I've been trying to read a lot of those types of stories lately and I have no idea where to start. Thanks! Check out Far Arden. I have it but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I've seen mostly positive reviews, though. This Tintin volume is mostly high seas adventures and I think it's the best classic adventure stories in the series. It's also the basis for last year's movie.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2012 19:55
|
|
|
On the opposite end of Halo Jones is Moore's D.R. and Quinch. I like to explain it as Sam & Max in space with sardonic British humor. And on the opposite end of Blacksad is the work of Jason. His style is taking cartoon "funny animals" and putting them in serious dramas. The cartoon characters and frank depictions of violence and sex make them humorous in a very dry way. I can't explain it other than by saying you have to read Jason to get Jason. My personal favorites are Hey, Wait..., I Killed Adolf Hitler, and The Last Musketeer. Hermes Press recently released a collection of Gray Morrow's Orion. This is almost literally Errol Flynn in space with fantastic art. It's a pulp adventure so expect a lot of text and very little inter-character development a la Saga but if you like the concept of SWASHBUCKLERS IN SPAAACE then it's a good buy. I wish Druillet's work was in print and in English, especially Urm. I see a few books on Amazon that I don't recognize and I'm not willing to bite the bullet just yet. Druillet did the kind of stuff Prophet did 40 years ago. They're very "alien" works of sci-fi like Moebius except less "human" if that makes any sense. The man loved intricate drawings of alien architecture, grotesque characters designs, people wandering around harsh landscapes, and detailed double page spreads.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2012 19:00
|
|
|
Benny the Snake posted:I'm really interested in Queen and Country by Greg Rucka: one of my favorite comic writers. It must be a rare series because I can't find it in any of my local comic shops. How good is the series? The "definitive editions" are still in print.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2012 02:55
|
|
|
Rule of thumb with The Walking Dead: read until you either get pissed off or you can accurately predict when the next person will die. That's a good point to stop.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2012 20:29
|
|
|
Apple's content management is as pointless as Nintendo. Everyone else requires age verification to access adult content, Apple would rather not have it at all or push it to some dark corner.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2013 16:19
|
|
|
Sundowner posted:I feel like this is a weird thing to take away from Nailbiter but I felt like the namesake character's "modus operandi" is a little... lame? Like, when I learned how the murderer targets victims it was a little deflating. That's probably a weird thing to say about someone who murders people but I've also been on a BIG Hannibal Lecter kick recently watching the movies/show and re-reading the books so I'm a little tuned to expecting more violent/grandiose themes, I guess. I have to say I'm really not feeling it. It feels kind of corny what with the weird onomatopoeia (STING, GRAB) and permanently constipated faces. Beyond that, the setup is really hokey. Guy works for military intelligence (why is DOD conducting this investigation???), has awkward conversation with punky teenager in the rain, has another awkward conversation in a tourist trap he happened to be standing next to, fights two stereotypical meat heads trying to sexually assault previous girl in the middle of the day, and is stopped by sexy officer who has her gun drawn to break up a street fight. All of this in the course of 5 minutes, basically. I'll give it another issue but the second one needs to have a good hook. The art is fine but the writer needs more focus. The dialog feels really scripted and I can't help but read everyone in a low monotone.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2014 16:32
|
|
|
Bitchin Kitchen posted:Does anyone know if the Regular Show comic is funny? Ehhhhhhh. I mean, is Regular Show really funny? I don't really think so and this is coming from a fan of the show. The appeal, for me at least, to the show and by proxy the comics is the bat poo poo insane scenarios that crop up out of mundane situations. The dialog is "dude what up dude how's it going dude no way dude oooooooooooohhh" but the artists always do a good job of making things bouncy and interesting. I honestly find KC Green wasted on the comic. Regular Show is formulaic and one dimensional which would be a negative anywhere else but here it serves the wacky antics. But then you have this writer known for sardonic humor yet he can only write the most neutered scripts possible for this all ages property. On the other hand, the Skips spin off is pretty good. I can't really put my finger on it but it's a better written story, has more visual humor, it's better paced and things flow together better. I think it's largely in part that the writer is also the artist so he can plan things out and it's a longer continuous story. I felt the same way about Marceline and the Scream Queens and Fionna and Cake which I enjoyed a lot more than Ryan North's main series. I really pick up these books for the guest artists but I'm not trying to discredit the main stuff because at worst it's above average. There hasn't been an issue where I say to myself "I really want my four dollars back." al-azad fucked around with this message at 11:32 on May 13, 2014 |
|
#
¿
May 13, 2014 11:30
|
|
|
foutre posted:I want there to be a world where there's a good television adaptation of Saga but I can't think of anyone who could pull that off, so it's probably for the best. I'm really hoping Guardians of the Galaxy completely runs away with its property and is as batshit insane in a way no other mainstream blockbuster has been. Because of GotG is as uniquely bizarre as I secretly hope it will be then I have hope that a Saga TV adaption could work well. They could even go a new route or follow different characters like the journalists or mercenaries.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2014 15:09
|
|
|
moot the hopple posted:I can't really vouch for it personally since I'm waiting on the new translation like everyone else, but it seems to be one of those cherished, seminal series that a lot of comics luminaries hold in high regard. Ballad of the Salt Sea has been on my radar after hearing it mentioned in a couple of interviews and best-of lists, though I don't think it will be included in the very first volume that IDW is releasing. Maybe it'll end up as one of those things that people say they enjoy to seem fashionable and it won't click with me, but I'm curious enough about its sterling reputation to check out whether it's truly deserved. Corto Maltese is basically adult Tintin. It's well written, drawn, and researched adventure serials starring a Jewish gypsy rogue traveler. In the 80s NBM released a few unadulterated, full-size 12"x9" black-and-white volumes based on the original Italian art. The Ballad of the Salt Sea also saw a reprint in the late 90s by a different publisher. They are long out of print and range from $50 to $150+. Throughout the 80s the series was hacked to a 9x7 format and colored for the French editions. Furthermore the layout is hacked to bits with panels being moved about to the point where 30 something pages are added. Seriously, look at this hack job. Also the line art is bafflingly low-res with aliased, jaggy lineart and artifacts. I have no idea what happened here because French comics are normally known for their high print quality. I don't know why they resized it, maybe Pratt's estates demanded that the French editions had to suck who knows? The Ballad of the Salt Sea was re-translated in English in 2012 but it was the lovely Castermann French version. So IDW has somehow got hold of the original Italian black-and-white prints that haven't been seen for 40 years! This is huge because the original Italian versions of Corto Maltese have been out of print for just as long as the English. So IDW gets a million points on my "cool dudes" chart.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2014 21:56
|
|
|
I'd say if you were at your wits end for Alan Moore stuff beyond the usual recommendations then Halo Jones and A Small Killing are both better and more aesthetically pleasing. A Small Killing in particular is one of my favorite illustrated Moore stories.
al-azad fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Dec 23, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2014 02:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 03:53 |
|
|
moot the hopple posted:Reminder that the first volume of Corto Maltese is being released this week. I'm personally waiting for Ballad of the Salt Sea to come out before plunging into it, but my completionist urge is tempting me to get this right away. Does anyone who's read this series before know if these early stories set up a lot of important things? No, it's an adventure serial. There's continuity in that his adventures take place in real time but each volume is self contained.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2015 05:17
|
|