What comic are you reading at the moment.

noodlesmcfilthy

Sesudra wrote: »

Bought the collected edition of "The Marquis" by Guy Davis today.had heard about it before but never read it,so gave it a go and am loving it thus far!his art work is great,and he has some seriously messed up designs for the demons in the story.

You had me at Demons...
Had a look at some stuff online.. definately gonna have to pick this up at some point.

HereticPrincess

Preacher

Amazingly addictive :rolleyes:

Getting more tomorrow..

Fysh

HereticPrincess wrote: »

Preacher

Amazingly addictive :rolleyes:

Getting more tomorrow..

Are you getting the softcover collections or the new hardbacks? I've got the softcovers but am curious how people find the hardbacks - I don't think they've changed the artwork and I'm not sure if they're oversized or the same size as the softvers, but I know they're supposed to have more issues contained in them...

Handsome Bob

Picked up Batman: Hush today. I'm really looking forward to reading it as I've already seen a bit of the story in "Joker: Greatest Stories Ever Told" and the art is exactly how I like it.

HereticPrincess

Reading the softcover ones at the moment,
It's an amazing read though! I'm really enjoying them.

Cassidy :rolleyes: One of the funniest characters ever!

Yeah Hush is really good too! Hope that you enjoy it!

Sesudra

Just got back from London so picked up a few things I'm looking forward to

-Noble Causes Archives Volume 2-collects issues 13 to 40,plus two specials in black and white.Was only £15,for that much story its a bargain.Great little series which was cancelled at issue 40,so I now have the whole run asI picked up volume one of this archive series in Paris a few months back

-Batman:Hush-the collected softcover,as the poster above said great art,good story

-JLA Hardcover volume 2-The second edition collection Grant Morrisons run.The art can be a bit patchy,but it has Rock of Ages which is a favourite JLA story of mine,not least for the great re-design of Wonder Woman Morrison gets to do in that storyline.

And lastly-Fables volume 11(I think) The Dark Ages-love this series,and this volume seems to be setting up the direction the series is gonna take for the forseeable future

Handsome Bob

Just finished Batman RIP, was it just me or did anyone else find the story incredibly incoherent?

Next up Batman: A Death In The Family.

Mal-Adjusted

finishung up Essential Moon Knight vol:2, cant decide between <The Flash: The Human Race>, and <Infinate Crisis> next.

noodlesmcfilthy

Morbid curiosity and it being only €9 in HMV got the best of me, so I picked up Frank Millers "All Star Batman and Robin"...

It is one of the worst things I've ever read...
At first I thought it was purposely that bad, in that it was taking the piss or something. But at about half way in.. I've realised that it's just horrible writing.

Can't believe this is the same man who wrote Year One...

Delirium

Logicomix - An epic search for the truth

From amazon.co.uk

This brilliantly illustrated tale of reason, insanity, love and truth recounts the story of Bertrand Russell's life. Raised by his paternal grandparents, young Russell was never told the whereabouts of his parents. Driven by a desire for knowledge of his own history, he attempted to force the world to yield to his yearnings: for truth, clarity and resolve.

As he grew older, and increasingly sophisticated as a philosopher and mathematician, Russell strove to create an objective language with which to describe the world - one free of the biases and slippages of the written word. At the same time, he began courting his first wife, teasing her with riddles and leaning on her during the darker days, when his quest was bogged down by paradoxes, frustrations and the ghosts of his family's secrets.

Ultimately, he found considerable success - but his career was stalled when he was outmatched by an intellectual rival: his young, strident, brilliantly original student, Ludwig Wittgenstein. An insightful and complexly layered narrative, Logicomix reveals both Russell's inner struggle and the quest for the foundations of logic. Narration by an older, wiser Russell, as well as asides from the author himself, make sense of the story's heady and powerful ideas. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between pure reason and the persistent flaws of reality, a narrative populated by great and august thinkers, young lovers, ghosts and insanity.

Fysh

What's that, you say? It's time for another one of those posts where I look over what I've read in the last few weeks and then have a minor coronary upon realising how much money I must have spent on comics?

Oh, go on then.

In no particular order:

Single issues:

There's no time like the present #7-9: This continues the trend established by the previous issues, except that now I'm up to date with the series and waiting for Paul Rainey to finish it off. It's a great little slice-of-life comic, and I can't wait to get more of it. (I've also just found out that if you go to Paul Rainey's website you can get a preview of the first 39 pages to see whether it's your thing or not).

(Unreproducible title): Another Lando comic, I found myself less enamoured with this comic. It's still good, and interesting in the same way that Decadence was interesting, but this comic uses the odd conceit of having the non-human characters all speak in their own incomprehensible language. So rather than the feeling of reading a silent comic where there's no verbal communication, you get the feeling of watching a thriller in a language you don't speak - you can follow the basics, but have no idea why things happen. Call it an interesting failure in that regard, but I can appreciate what was being attempted.

Hotwire #4: A return to more normal artwork, this had some very entertaining (but very Ellis-tinged) moments and was a solid conclusion to the storyline. The artwork once again does a lot of the heavy lifting by differentiating this series from most other comics out there, while the titular character's background seems very familiar for those of us who read Iron Man: Extremis (it's very similar to the backstory provided for the foil of that story), but provided far more entertaining rants, specifically from a particular software engineer. Worth keeping an eye out for in collected form, I should think. Also worth noting that for a fully-painted series on glossy paper it still shipped with a cover price of $2.99, which is a nice change from the wallet-genocide that usually results from buying single-issue comics these days...

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #4: It feels very odd to be enjoying an event-comic follow-up as a standalone comic when I haven't read the event and have very little idea about the characters featured in this story, but the whole "Prisoner set in the DCU" vibe is still more or less working. We'll see whether this gets dragged back into the almost-inevatable DC-continuity-porn territory that such miniseries usually migrate to, but it's been enjoyable so far.

Doktor Sleepless #13: As a fan of Warren Ellis' brand of sci-fi comics, I'm enjoying this. But I have to be honest, it's been so long between issues that at this point I have only the faintest of notions as to what's going on in terms of storyline. I'll be digging out all the issues so far and re-reading them once we get to 16 or so, assuming that's where the second story-arc wraps up. Fun, if only to see what the Doktor has in mind for Heavenside and the world...

Dead Space: Extraction: An interesting post-script to the first phase of the whole Dead Space franchise. I haven't played the game, but I read the prequel comic (which was ok, but could realistically have been done in 4 issues rather than 6) and saw the animated movie (which was dreadful and seemed to serve no purpose). This comic is better than the animated movie, and depicts events that probably occur in tandem with the animated movie; it's not amazing by any means, but you will very probably enjoy it if you enjoyed the previous series of comics. Hardly essential reading though.

2000AD prog 1647: Once again Bob Byrne has me picking up 2000AD, and Twisted Tale #10 is a great one. Pitting an intrepid explorer against an indigenous people in a way you wouldn't expect, this delivers on every level. I'm waiting for Bob to give us a Twisted Tales collection, and will round up a posse to repeatedly punch him in the knackers if he even thinks about refusing....


Collections & GNs:

Mail Volume 1: Furthering my tentative ventures into manga for my horror fix, I saw this and looked at it based on the pixellated style of the lettering on the spine and the cover art. It's a nice set of done-in-one ghost stories, predicated around an unusual exorcist type who sends ghosts to their final resting place using specially-inscribed bullets. It's nothing particularly deep but on the other hand it's well done and has delivered some very effective scares using the sorts of set pieces and techniques that are over-used and cheapened in any number of Japanese films re-made for the American market. Worth a look if you thought the premise of Ju-on: The Grudge was much better than the actual film.

Frankenstein's Womb: Another of Warren Ellis' graphic novellas, this time a rather weird fictionalisation of how Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein. It's a bit odd, and while it has a lot of ideas in it there's a nagging sensation that they might be better explored in a lengthy essay of some sort. But even at that, like Crecy before it, the subjects it covers are fascinating enough that you don't really mind the feeling that you're half-reading a comic and half-in a history lesson of some sort.

How to date a girl in ten days: An independent comic, I picked this up after seeing a few preview pages somewhere. It's a decent little comic, about 64 pages or so long, and it's enjoyable. The subject matter is perilously close to falling into the the self-absorbed nonsense that far too many autobiographical comics peddle, but handled with enough aplomb and humour that it works. Truth be told though, the strength in this comic is the artwork - the stylistic approaches vary enough to make what amount to a bunch of conversations and a story about a boy meeting a girl who decides not to embark on a relationship with him seem not only not flimsy but outright amusing and entertaining. The ending falls down a bit by being more twee than it had any business being, but overall it's worth checking out. I'd be very interested to see what Tom Humberstone does next.

Pax Romana Volume 1: Jonathan Hickman first arrived in comics (as far as I know, anyway) with Nightly News, a caustic series about the current state of journalism. He followed that up with Pax Romana and Transhuman, but due to some unexplained delay on the Pax Romana collected edition I read and enjoyed Transhuman first, as a tongue-in-cheek comment about the transhumanist movement and how it might progress given the current state of human society. I arrive thus at Pax Romana with a reasonable expectation of an intelligent read and a fairly high standard to maintain. That standard appears matched by Pax Romana, which like Nightly News before it is entirely the work of Hickman. I actually prefer this, as there's a certain charm to the tricks he uses to get around the limitations imposed by his artistic ability. It's the scope of vision that goes into his stories that makes them so enjoyable, I think. This is an entire alternate history of the world, presented in four issues as a parable/fairy tale told to an infant pope to help him understand the world he has control over. I really enjoyed it, although in saying that I hope that Hickman doesn't revisit this world when he finally gets back to doing independent/creator-owned work; there's sufficient diversity to his published work so far that I'm sure he has plenty of new ideas to throw at us without revisiting past work.

DMZ Volume 7: War Powers: I don't really know how to describe DMZ other than as somewhere between Transmetropolitan and Joe Sacco, because I don't know of any other longform journalism comics. It's not really like either of them, though, which is a good thing. The weird near-future civil war continues to rip the USA in half, and Matty Roth has spent six months talking to people caught up in the middle of the war. This volume of the story feels like a turning point, where Roth starts to figure out what he's actually going to do with himself other than being used as a pawn. Enjoyable, thought-provoking stuff.

The Gigantic Robot: This is a comparatively large yoke described by its creator as a "board book", containing the story of a gigantic robot created by a warmongering people. It's a bit light on story, since each page is effectively one panel, but it's very pretty and comes from the same genius behind the minicomics "Three Very Small Comics" volumes 1, 2 & 3 - which were all fantastic for experimenting playfully with the format & layout. I enjoyed it, though I don't know that I'd go for another comic in the same format unless it was very different.

Accent UK Western Anthology: I can't remember where I heard about this, but I'm reasonably sure I ordered a copy after having enjoyed Outlaw Territory earlier this year. And, well, it's hard to go wrong with an anthology book for £8, really. This was a nice mix of stuff - it seemed to be going for a bit more of an all-ages appeal than Outlaw Territory, which suited me fine. While I don't necessarily want all comics to be kid-friendly, it did mean that this anthology felt sufficiently different to OT that it wasn't just re-treading material someone else had already covered recently. It's nice to see compendiums of genre-specific books out there. I'll be keeping an eye out for the next Accent anthology.

Alternative Press Publish You Anthology: Another anthology, this time of a decidedly small press bent. I recognized a few of the contributors but it was great to see a small press collection that expanded its focus to include poetry, illustration and zine makers. Again, at £8 for the page count it's really hard to go wrong with something like this as you're almost certain to find something you'll like.

Awesome 2: Awesomer Anthology: And another anthology, though I read this a while ago and would've sworn I mentioned it already. It's published by the Indie Spinner Rack crowd as a fundraiser for the Centre for Cartoon Studies. It's 200-odd pages, has a minicomic included at the back drawn by people enrolled at the Centre for Cartoon Studies, and contains amongst other things a story from the creators of Street Angel (it's an Afrodisiac story, which is more fun than a blaxploitation pastiche has any right to be). As with most anthologies, there were a couple of things that weren't quite my thing, but overall it's very good and well worth for the diversity of material.


(Aside from the lot mentioned there, I've also been reading Wednesday Comics, which will get its own thread shortly, the first issue of Marvel's new Strange Tales miniseries, Amulet: The Stone Keeper's Curse, Alice In Sunderland, Spiegelman's Portrait of the Artist as a Young $%*&!, as well as various issues of Girly Comic and Whores of Mensa, and probably a couple of other things I've forgotten too....)

frankhellon

Currently I am reading the comic "Superman". Thats really interesting Comic Book.

smokingman

Just finished V for Vendetta again. Amazing writing in there
Read the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (softback) as well and loved it. There's something about the Ultimates series that I just can't get enough of.

trustno1

Just finished book 9 of The Walking Dead.. OMG.. excellent!!... and hopefully the rumours are true that it will be coming to the small screen with Frank Darabont directing..

Ridley

Recently finished All Star Batman and Robin and Batman: Under the Hood volumes 1 and 2 (which I bought for Judd Winnick in case All Star was as bad as people made it out to be).

Didn't care for All Star. I'd say Miller's writing has become stagnant (in his city, it cries out for him *growl* *growl*) but I got through The Spirit movie intact so I'm not sure what it is about the tone I don't like. If it's supposed to be pulp with little depth, it really doesn't work for what was supposed to be an ongoing series.

Certainly doesn't feel like it fits between Year One and Dark Knight Returns anyway.

Under the Hood was fine and Red Hood's actual motive was a good payoff. Did a good job of distracting from the actual hows of

Jason Todd returned from the dead

aswell since it was cheap...

grumula

the latest in the Scott Pilgrim series, quirky Canadian comic series by Brian Lee O Malley, full of 90's pop culture/video game references, very inventive.

Mal-Adjusted

grumula wrote: »

the latest in the Scott Pilgrim series, quirky Canadian comic series by Brian Lee O Malley, full of 90's pop culture/video game references, very inventive.

yea, i've all five Scott Pilgrims (can't wait for the film next year!)

i've recently finished Moon Knight: The Bottom and Civil War. TBH, Civil war was a bit meh throughout, a little dissapointing & a sh1te ending. it's a shame because it'd been so built up and I was really looking forward to it. Moon Knight on the other hand!:eek: holy crap! amazing story and art! quite an intense book. bring on Midnight Sun!

I'm moving on now to Darh Horse's "X omnibus" with great anticipation.

Lame Lantern

For the real Civil War ending you need to read Brubaker's "The Death of Captain America" in my opinion. The main Civil War TPB doesn't provide you with the scope needed to really get the whole arc, but that's crazy expensive.

Today on the toilet (I'm a classy bloke) I read a few books released over the last fortnight. The new Fantastic Four arc is pretty great, Gotham City Sirens had Paul Dini's cartoonish Joker in it last week (which isn't in vogue but still pretty fun). The Hulk books are picking up again after being weird for the last little while and every Superman family book is absolutely dire.

Mal-Adjusted

Lame Lantern wrote: »

For the real Civil War ending you need to read Brubaker's "The Death of Captain America" in my opinion. The main Civil War TPB doesn't provide you with the scope needed to really get the whole arc, but that's crazy expensive.

Today on the toilet (I'm a classy bloke) I read a few books released over the last fortnight. The new Fantastic Four arc is pretty great, Gotham City Sirens had Paul Dini's cartoonish Joker in it last week (which isn't in vogue but still pretty fun). The Hulk books are picking up again after being weird for the last little while and every Superman family book is absolutely dire.

i guess. i read the New Aveners: Civil war, (a collection of five stand alones side stories). it's actually better than the main one, focussing on Luke Cage & Spiderwoman

UppThaDubs

Batman War Games

Just Picked up act one of the series,see if it was worth the read.
In My opinion ,its a really good storyline and has,at times,got some really great artwork,except near the end of the book,where the artwork changes and Catwoman is all bug-eyed and ****:(

good book though.

Ridley

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

I'm moving on now to Darh Horse's "X omnibus" with great anticipation.

Is that any good? I plan on getting all the DH Omnibuseseses eventually anyway but I had trouble following the Dark Horse Heroes Omnibus which is putting me off any of the series that spun out from it (X, Barb Wire, Ghost).

Currently making my way through Brubaker's Daredevil and Iron Fist Omnibuses. Finished The Devil, Inside and Out arc and re-read The Last Iron Fist Story (had the TPB), and currently making my way through The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven.

Also read Indiana Jones Adventures volume 2. Not as enjoyable as the first but, from what I've seen in general, I don't think Dark Horse's media tie-ins get enough love, they're easily the best at expanding on film's ideas than just rehashing a plot*cough*Dynamite*cough*.

Mal-Adjusted

Ridley wrote: »

Is that any good? I plan on getting all the DH Omnibuseseses eventually anyway but I had trouble following the Dark Horse Heroes Omnibus which is putting me off any of the series that spun out from it (X, Barb Wire, Ghost).

Currently making my way through Brubaker's Daredevil and Iron Fist Omnibuses. Finished The Devil, Inside and Out arc and re-read The Last Iron Fist Story (had the TPB), and currently making my way through The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven.

Also read Indiana Jones Adventures volume 2. Not as enjoyable as the first but, from what I've seen in general, I don't think Dark Horse's media tie-ins get enough love, they're easily the best at expanding on film's ideas than just rehashing a plot*cough*Dynamite*cough*.

TBH, it's not the best. The X-killer doesn't have much of a character and the stories, while good, feel very disjointed & don't flow together well. get it if it's cheap enough, but not worth it at anything over fifteen euro.

settling myself in for the propoganda machine by reading Essential Iron Man, Vol 1

Lame Lantern

The Batman and Robin ongoing series written by Grant Morrison is magnificent. The issue out last Thursday in particularly worth picking up.

Arion24

Trying to see if Black Lantern storyline will make up for the waste of money that was Countdown and the bamboozling Final Crisis.
Apart from that I've been reading everything - what I'm actually enjoying is:
Buffy
Secret Six
Anything by Gail Simone
Hack/Slash
Knights of the Old Republic

Considering how many comics I get every week it's sad that so little are doing so well in terms of being fun to read.

Lame Lantern

Arion24 wrote: »

Trying to see if Black Lantern storyline will make up for the waste of money that was Countdown and the bamboozling Final Crisis.
Apart from that I've been reading everything - what I'm actually enjoying is:
Buffy
Secret Six
Anything by Gail Simone
Hack/Slash
Knights of the Old Republic

Considering how many comics I get every week it's sad that so little are doing so well in terms of being fun to read.

I dunno, I buy a ton of comics every week as well and I think there's plenty going on at the moment to look forward to. As aforementioned, Morrison's Batman and Robin is outstanding. Brubaker's Marvels Project and Captain America Reborn are both top quality, and depending on what your stance is on Loeb, Hulk is looking up of late. Old Man Logan just finished up and was of a high standard too. Oh, and the new Fantastic 4 arc is great. Most other mainstream ongoing series at the moment are engaging if not amazing, with the exception of the Superman books which are dull as all hell. Just my opinion though.

Whatever you think of the Blackest Night concept, the main book by Geoff Johns (as well as the tagged issues of Green Lantern) are all extremely well written, and Ivan Reis's art is gorgeous as well. The miniseries tie-ins have been average and are pretty unnecessary. If you feel the need to pick one up, BN: Superman is probably the best.

Arion24

Lame Lantern wrote: »

I dunno, I buy a ton of comics every week as well and I think there's plenty going on at the moment to look forward to. As aforementioned, Morrison's Batman and Robin is outstanding. Brubaker's Marvels Project and Captain America Reborn are both top quality, and depending on what your stance is on Loeb, Hulk is looking up of late. Old Man Logan just finished up and was of a high standard too. Oh, and the new Fantastic 4 arc is great. Most other mainstream ongoing series at the moment are engaging if not amazing, with the exception of the Superman books which are dull as all hell. Just my opinion though.

Whatever you think of the Blackest Night concept, the main book by Geoff Johns (as well as the tagged issues of Green Lantern) are all extremely well written, and Ivan Reis's art is gorgeous as well. The miniseries tie-ins have been average and are pretty unnecessary. If you feel the need to pick one up, BN: Superman is probably the best.

It's mainly the stuff being plugged the most that's coming across as failing IMO. The heavy hitters just aren't as grasping as the one character storylines or other comics.

E.g Superman is going well, but seems to be stuck in the same spot for the past few weeks

this whole New Krypton thing hasn't progressed much, needs a boost

As for Marvels Dark Reign Saga...I just don't care. Since mid-way through Civil War so many characters have been butchered and ruined and I am still waiting on the aftermath of HoM to be wrapped. Messiah Complex was suppose to that and to be honest it is nowhere near fufilling those promises.

Lame Lantern

Yeah, Dark Reign isn't noteworthy. They're explaining it as less of an "event" and more a reoganisation of characters. Despite this they've still pushed out tons of woeful limited series stuff that really just makes the Dark Reign banner laughable.

Arion24

Lame Lantern wrote: »

Yeah, Dark Reign isn't noteworthy. They're explaining it as less of an "event" and more a reoganisation of characters. Despite this they've still pushed out tons of woeful limited series stuff that really just makes the Dark Reign banner laughable.

This is exactly it.

BopNiblets

I got Joker by Brian Azzerello, and one of his other non-bats books, Filthy Rich, it was ok.

kevinmcm

I finally got hold of issues 1 & 2 of V for Vendetta. Had the remaining issues for years. Read the whole thing over the last week. Fantastic stuff from Moore. That and From Hell I think are my favorite Alan Moore story's.

Also on eBay I got issues 0-8 of the Twelve from Marvel Comics. This is new take on some 40's hero's published by Timely comics. Have only read 2 issues so far but its really good. Story by J. Michael Straczynski and fine art from Chris Weston. Cant wait to get back to it shortly actually!