February Chat Thread: chat in this thread, during February

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > February Chat Thread: chat in this thread, during February

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

I was hoping to discuss Savage Dragon a little more, so I posted in the old thread this afternoon, right before it was closed:

Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

Well, I just finished Savage Dragon Archives Vol. 3 (collecting #51-75), and I enjoyed it way more than I expected to. It reminded me of the comics I used to write as a teenager (The Super Squadron and The Honor Guard) -- just wild imagination and unbridled id at play, riffing off DC and Marvel and popular culture in general, with a surprising amount of "slice of life"/soap opera-esque character development, some silly humor, and occasional shocking violence and unexpected tragedy to jolt the reader out of a comfort zone.

There is literally a cast of hundreds, and Larsen has no problem shaking up the status quo for heroes, villains, and supporting characters alike. There are time jumps, major life events (marriages, children being born and growing up, breakups, deaths), crime stories, Kirby-esque space opera, good old-fashioned slugfests, callbacks and running gags, and meta-commentary on superhero comics as a genre and comics as an entire medium of storytelling.

Of course, Larsen wallows in '90s excesses, between the outbreaks of ultraviolence and the ridiculously voluptuous, scantily-clad female characters (who occasionally get fridged). With regard to the latter, I get the impression he's self-aware of what a dirty old man he is, compared to most of his '90s Image contemporaries, and he's somewhat in on the joke. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit there, since the Dragon seems like a real self-insert character at times, always in a long term relationship or a casual hook-up with one gravity-defying buxom babe or another.

There's a sense of fun to it all that most of the other '90s Image titles never had. It's over-the-top on purpose, always with a wink and a smile, rather than glowing eyes and gritted teeth. And his world building and strong sense of continuity give us characters and settings where everything matters, no matter how silly or sad or stupid it may seem at the time. It helps that one man has written and drawn everything, that's for sure.

I'm sure I'm missing all kinds of nuances to the art since this Archives volume is in black and white. Unfortunately, the covers are all at the end of the book, and any "In the next issue" transitions are left out, so I'm not sure where the issues begin and end, and that affects the pacing somewhat. But I'm enjoying Savage Dragon more than I ever thought I would, reading these 1998 comics with fresh eyes and an open mind in 2016. I hope our library gets e-book versions of the rest of these Archives, and if it doesn't, I may even be tempted to track them down for myself. For the few of you who have read this series, does the quality stay pretty consistent, such as it is?

# ¿ Feb 1, 2016 04:14

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 20:47

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

A perfect example of the kind of humor in Savage Dragon: our musclebound, green-skinned hero walks into a bar full of tough guys, looking for a missing woman. He announces "I'M LOOKING FOR AMANDA LOVE!" Everyone freaks out and runs out of the bar, leaving Dragon confused. Then it slowly dawns on him what that must have sounded like, and he slaps his forehead, looks at the reader with frustration, and says "Oh, Jesus Christ."

I admit it, I laughed.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2016 04:54

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

WickedHate posted:

I don't want to be Americentric, but I've never seen a newstand in my life. I mean, it's probably different in places like New York, but newspapers are a dying industry as it is anyaway. As far as I'm aware supermarkets still sell some comics, though, like Archie and stuff-don't know about DC and the like.

Where do you live, and how old are you?

At least in the '80s and '90s, there used to be newsstands everywhere. I'm from the suburbs of Miami, and it seems like I spent half my childhood in libraries, new and used bookstores, comic shops, and newsstands. I remember buying my first-ever "grownup" comic book (Transformers #5) at a newsstand called The Front Page, and I must have bought hundreds of comics there and another place called Ted's News, which expanded its comic selection during the boom of the early '90s. If there was a new #1 issue, a big event, or a gimmick cover, they had it, and I tried to get it.

I miss newsstands, but they're still relatively recent history.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2016 06:29

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

boom boom boom posted:

I read some issues of that old Sensational She-Hulk comic. It wasn't very good.

Is that John Byrne's run? I've never read it, but I loved what Dan Slott and Charles Soule did with She-Hulk.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 23:23

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

Erik Larsen must really hate John Byrne. He had a sleazy character in Savage Dragon named Johnny Redbeard, based on Byrne, who exploited a hot, green-skinned woman he called Sensation (who later reinvented herself as She-Dragon).

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 23:51

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

Bacon is great, but I prefer really good sausages and even really good ham to bacon.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 14:52

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

redbackground posted:

Bacon isn't worth eating unless it's Benton's Bacon, the best Bacon in these United States.

I think that may have been the best bacon I've ever had, come to think of it. I had it on a burger in Knoxville at the Stock and Barrel, with pimento cheese and bourbon-caramelized onions.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 15:20

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

I wish a Green Lantern movie would have EVERYONE: Hal as the cocky alpha male, John as the quiet, introspective badass, Alan as the wise elder statesman, Guy as the wildcard, and Kyle as the wide-eyed rookie. Hell, make it a police procedural, or The Wire in space. Visit alien worlds, learn about their criminal justice systems, balance the effects-heavy space battles with the interpersonal drama, character development, social commentary, and occasional comic relief you'd find on the best cop shows and movies. These cops just happen to work a larger beat and carry the most powerful weapons in the universe.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2016 05:37

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 20:47

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

Last night's episode of Limitless (a surprisingly fun, clever, creative show, especially considering it's a procedural on CBS) had several comic artists contributing animated art for different flashbacks and fantasy sequences, including Nick Pitarra, Annie Wu, and Babs Tarr:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/02/18/limitless-new-sands-centric-episode-gets-comic-booky

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 14:08

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > February Chat Thread: chat in this thread, during February