What comic are you reading at the moment.

CastorTroy · 26-09-2021 6:34pm

About 200 pages into Maus. Interesting storytelling device for such a story.

Fysh · 04-10-2021 2:13pm

I've been slowly making my way through the complete Berlin by Jason Lutes. It's compelling although somewhat dense stuff, with a fairly broad cast. I suspect this may keep me going for a while as I'm not in the humour to just race through it.

Fysh · 12-10-2021 8:06pm

I took a break from Berlin and read books 1 and 2 of Brink by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. I'm a big fan of Culbard's work with Self Made Hero on the Lovecraft adaptations, and I've heard good things about Abnett as an SF writer.

Brink so far is really good, and very much hewing towards my interest. Noir/crime story focus? Check. Solid, largely grounded SF concepts? Check. Unknowable monsters from beyond spacetime of which man was not meant to wossname? Check. Dialogue that sounds convincingly like actual real world people, including sneaky humour? Check.

In fact, my only real complaint is that I've only got one more volume left, and that'll change pretty fast. Book 4 is out in November, but after that it's a waiting game...

Fysh · 13-10-2021 7:47pm

As expected, Volume 3 of Brink did not last long at all. Another really enjoyable volume in the series, it also feels like something of a turning point, so I'm very interested in seeing what volume 4 brings next year.

I've also been reminded that there's another volume of Scarlet Traces coming next year, which is something to rejoice about as it should be a Dredd-enforceable law to appreciate D'israeli's artwork.

Fysh · 25-10-2021 9:48pm

I've not had a lot of time for reading comics recently, mostly I've been dipping into the Strange Planet webcomic collection as I don't seem to be in the mood for more of the Berlin saga (good though it is).

I have had a chance to pop into Gosh! for the first time in years and pick up some stuff including the Tom King Mister Miracle limited series amongst other things, so we'll see how that goes. It's also the last week of the Shortbox Comics Fair, and hopefully the final Shortbox kickstarter box will be in the post soon meaning I get further reading material...

mrcheez · 25-10-2021 10:27pm

Yep finding it hard to get time too. Damn Switch and Oculus Quest taking up too much of my free time! Determined to finish Descender volumes though!

Fysh · 28-10-2021 11:42am

I finished up the Strange Planet collection, that was lovely. Daft and whimsical in a way that puts a smile on my face.

I recently found out that Charles Forsman, creator of The End Of The F*cking World and I Am Not OK With This, has done a series (or maybe series-of-miniseries) in a very different style called Revenger. In some ways the setting feels like it could be the same as his other comics, but tonally this is much more of an idiosyncratic action/exploitation story, with a sort of A-Team/Punisher feel to it. The first trade was a very fun read so I expect I'll be picking up more of it in due course.

I also picked up a bunch of indie/small press stuff, of which the first to be read was a Tom Gauld thing called 24 comics, collecting some of his cartoons for the Guardian. I'm a sucker for Gauld's cartoons, and this was no exception. I have a lot of time for silliness like this:

Xofpod · 03-11-2021 10:30am

Just read the first volume of They're Not Like Us. Picked it up for the cover, initially thought it a bit meh, but it definitely got better. Will pick up the second volume but I believe it got cancelled before it got much further than that.

Picking back up Saga next I think.

Fysh · 03-11-2021 11:35am

Despite my thoughts of reading small press and indie stuff the next thing I jumped to was the Tom King/Mitch Gerads Mister Miracle limited series from a couple of years ago. Unlike King's The Vision series, this one really landed for me first time. I recall liking Gerads' art back when he was on The Activity, and it really works well here selling both the mundane and the fantastic. The narrative is good, and grounded in good character exploration - looking at depression, grief, and how long term relationships ebb and flow. A big part of what makes this work is that it has plenty of humourous moments and a great depiction of a strong, positive relationship between Scott Free and Big Barda to offset against the grim excesses of Apokolips.

Next, I'm a few issues into NK Jemisin's Far Sector. Perhaps predictably, as someone who has very little interest in Green Lantern lore and a lot of time for Jemisin's writing, I'm really enjoying it.

Ridley · 15-11-2021 5:08am

Asterix and the Chariot Race -

https://i.imgur.com/y18Wk99.jpeg

Yeah, that was my reaction to COVID-50BC an' all!

Sonic the Hedgehog: The IDW Collection 01

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor 2 - Hidden Human History* - I mean, the idea of realising you're randomly time travelling to episodes of a podcast is fun but there's not much done with the settings.

Doctor Who: The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor*

Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka 2 - Partially a re-read as I've already done the Stoned arc with the Eyes of the Gorgon TPB. Still a sucker for the Jason and the Argonauts-style gods playing with the lives of mortals schtick. I would argue that if your child being petrified is a death sentence, using their form, frozen in its death throes, as their memorial statue might be in poor taste and unlikely to help the grieving process. 😉

X-Men Gold 2: Evil Empires* - "What does the Secret Empire event have in store for the X-Men?" Well, in this case they basically look out a window, go "Gosh that looks like a pickle" then deal with their own thing.

X-Men Blue 2: Toil and Trouble*

X-Men/Fantastic Four: 4X - I mean, you don't have to give these a subtitle. I would have went with Reeddit: AXTA? Bit of a disappointment, really, since I was pleased with Chip Zdarklebarkle's brief Marvel 2-in-One FF dealings. I'll get to Hickman's X-Men status quo eventually so maybe that'll comfortably Xplain why mutants doing the Madagascar Plan is a good idea (and why Xavier's new wardrobe is terrorist!Cyclops) but the problem with this X-over is that the entire premise is that the X-Men by hook or by crook want Franklin Richards on Krakoa to be with 'his own kind' and his parents aren't keen on the idea of their teenage son being whisked away for some reason.

It's all a bit of Fantastic forced drama when I don't believe these characters wouldn't just arrange what the obvious compromise is from the start and a rare story where Reed Richards isn't the biggest jerk in the room. He does try with his "Oh I have a thing that can bypass the X-Gene and while it's not genocide, it could totally be adapted to that purpose." journal though. It wants to have an argument for both sides only to ultimately be (comics) Civil War where one side is clearly in the wrong.

Also, Doctor Doom just happens to have his own island accommodating Latveria's mutant population and at no point do we get a latvariation of "Doom Island is actually a peninsula" so that sucked.

Avengers: No Surrender - Not enough creators do anything with the 50-State Initiative so nods to it are always welcome. Goes some way to elevate an otherwise Marvel bit-part player in Living Lightning who steps up then bows out once the arc is done which is part of the point; still, I'd be happy to see him show up again.

Amazing Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy

The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide 3 HC

Had started Worldwide 3 first thinking I was finishing up the Slott run but it just turned out to be the cut-off point where Marvel stopped doing the oversize hard covers and thus I had to do the TPB dance trying to collect the set before they disappeared into triple figure prices which I thought I'd avoided by getting the three hard covers in the first place. Anyhoo, Worldwide hit the Clone Conspiracy arc and was impenetrable as they're too event adjacent and neglect to even do the text pages which explain what's going on between issues so grabbed that to go back over. The identity reveal was already spoiled forever ago but I like Slott's Spider-run. I should get around to the Clone Saga at some point but Maximum Carnage was enough of a meandering read in 14 issues back in the day and I've been 75% of the way through Age of Apocalypse for years.

Heroes for Hire by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection - Picked it up while watching Iron Fist season 2 (being rich is so haaaard) catching up on the Netflix MCU as I wanted more Misty Knight (then did the Distracted Boyfriend meme for Daredevil when I hit the last season of that show). Book's fine - I approve of Demonica weapons being loaded with damnunition. There's this weird thing going on with lips on characters throughout beyond the panels where the focus on them is clearly written in. I'd dismiss it as an artist quirk but they change throughout the run so you get this mix of hyperrealistic mouths and ones where they're humorous substitute for their own lips. One panel only has Spider-Man with his nose and mouth through the mask which isn't at all off-putting. Puppet Master appears so his dummy jaw is in it. Mouths everywhere.

And one artist is all about every character wearing clothes too big for them and they will not entertain an iron under any circumstances.

*Digital version

Xofpod · 19-11-2021 2:03pm

Picked back up Saga, volumes 4-7. Really enjoyed it and must pick up 8 to get fully up to speed for the new stuff.

Also reading old X-Men stuff, a couple of volumes of the complete Age of Apocalypse. Always remembered this as a high-water mark for the comic, but the years really haven't been that kind. Average art (at best), clunky writing. Maybe best not to revisit some things....

On the flip side - and what prompted the look back at the comics - I'm watching the 90s animated show with my kids and its every bit as good as it was. Can't wait for the new installment (X-Men '97) promised on Disney+ next year.

Fysh · 20-11-2021 1:39pm

I remember trying to revisit the 90s cartoon and not lasting very long with it, glad you're able to enjoy it a second time around :)

I really should try at least the first volume of Saga, I have it on digital from some bundle. But I know I'm generally not a big fan of Vaughan's writing, so it's like there's always something else to read first...

I forgot to post about it but I finished Far Sector - that was great. As someone who really couldn't care less about rings or lanterns of any colour I would definitely read a follow-up series as long as it was written by Jemisin.

I had some time recently so I ended up reading a bit more of the Humanoids bundle I bought a while back - specifically, the 3 issues of the Jodorowsky/Moebius Madwoman of the Sacred Heart story. It's fun, with lovely art as you'd expect, although how much you enjoy the story will to some extent depend on how interested you are in Jodorowsky poking fun at academics, philosophers, revolutionaries and religious converts...

I also read the 3 volumes of Absolom, which were a pretty good story arc about an occult version of The Sweeney. The supporting cast were well-rounded, though I must admit that Harry felt like a cliché as often as not - I think I've just seen too many Gene-Hunt-in-Life-On-Mars types for it to land convincingly as an actual character. (Si Spurrier's handling of John Constantine in the most recent run was a much better balancing act of an abrasive persona balanced with a more vulnerable inner life, for example). 2000AD is a tricky format for it, but perhaps if we'd had more about Harry's family earlier in the story it would've balanced it better. Still an enjoyable read, mind you, and I wouldn't mind reading some of the Caballistics, Inc stories that apparently precede the Absolom series.

Not sure what I'll read next, there's a heap of trades my OH has picked up over the last few months that I keep forgetting about, so maybe some of them...

Ridley · 20-11-2021 9:19pm

Number every potential read and hit a random number generator. 😉

I do wish something like Comixology had a randomiser button so I could do a comics roulette and diversify my reading habits a bit.

Fysh · 23-11-2021 8:05pm

Like a twit I had forgotten that the last Shortbox Kickstarter shipped a few weeks back and I had those waiting for me, so I got stuck in.

The Move was an interesting little story about moving on from bad times, and the things that can make that difficult. For some deceptively simple styling it managed to be very evocative with light and shadow.

Gristle is one of those stories that is overtly about depression, but is told using a fantastical mcguffin of a pink fleshy ... clam-thing? that the protagonist Olive finds attached to a tree one day. She takes it home and things get weirder from there. The character aspect is done really well here, and the use of monotone plus pink for the clam-creature is very striking. I liked this one a lot, and it reminded me a bit of Boogsy, a previous Shortbox comic.

Xofpod · 03-12-2021 12:08pm

Read Alan Moore/Kevin O'Neil's final League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book, Tempest. Great reference made to the whole history of British comics, from Eagle to Beano to Whizzer and Chips (and Viz...), not just the cooler stuff. Still, the whole series never resonated with me the way it seems to have for many other people.

Still, I love me a bit of Alan Moore, so on to the collected Providence...

Ridley · 24-12-2021 10:28pm

Merry Christmas!

https://i.imgur.com/LNN5aaU.jpg

Webster's dictionary defines Christmas as

Fysh · 28-12-2021 6:07pm

Nobody posting their comics haul?

Alright so, I'll go first:

Blacksad Volume 6 (only out in Spanish so far)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (the Fraction/Lieber limited series)
The Sky In Blue With A Single Cloud by Kuniko Tsurita
Todo Bajo El Sol by Ana Penyas

I will almost certainly be picking up the Brubaker Humble Bundle too, as while I have physical copies of a majority of them, I don't have either of the Reckless books and there's no word so far on when (if at all) they'll get paperback releases, so digital would do me for now.

mrcheez · 05-01-2022 6:02pm

Completed Descender and Ascender there over Xmas... absolutely loved it and loved the art style.

Also got through a few of the other smaller comics like Family Tree and Dracula (from Legendary Comics)

Was going to post this in the Graphic Novel bargain thread, but this thread seems more appropriate as these are comics I may read next:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ed-brubaker-image-comics-books

More or less the complete Ed Brubaker collection.

I'm not familiar with Ed Brubaker, but the guys on reddit seem to be foaming at the mouth about this bundle. What is his style like?

Anyway these are prob next on my reading list for the price :)

Fysh · 05-01-2022 7:25pm

I think it was Declan Shalvey saying that Criminal was one of his favourite comics that got me into Brubaker - I read the first trade and was hooked, and it remains one of my favourite comic series ever. Very much a "series of miniseries in a shared world" deal so you don't necessarily need to read them in order if you don't want to.

In terms of style, Brubaker tends towards being grounded and with a fair amount of focus on character, not so much at the expense of plot as to give it proper context. There's a definite theme of acknowledging (some might say gravitating towards) the seedier or darker sides of society and the world, but for me a key thing is that he doesn't try to sell you a glamourised version of the characters or the world they're in.

For folks who read more superhero-oriented stuff, I expect the entrypoints might have been the likes of Sleeper, GCPD or his Captain America run that served as entry points - I've not read either of the last two so can't really comment, but Sleeper is a phenomenally good Wildstorm book, comparable to the Ellis-era stuff in quality although with better art.

Xofpod · 06-01-2022 6:37pm

Read The Immortal Hulk omnibus 1. Started well with some great horror elements, before getting a bit too marvel-ly for my liking. Think I'll stick with it for the next volume at least though.

Also finally getting around to Gideon Falls with the first volume. Loving it so far. Great art - Andrea Sorrentino - very reminiscent of Arthur Ranson

mrcheez · 06-01-2022 7:42pm

Gideon Falls' art gets progressively more abstract and insane/imaginative as the world in the story does the same

Fysh · 06-01-2022 11:19pm

Oh yeah, I think I have the first 2 Gideon Falls trades on digital, they were really good. With that kind of art style the real measure of the artist is being able to keep that balance between the abstraction in visual terms and the need for clarity in terms of storytelling and narrative. Sorrentino nails it in the two trades I read.

mrcheez · 06-01-2022 11:37pm

I got sent a volume with missing text for several pages...then Amazon sent me a replacement a few weeks later but let me keep the misprinted one. Might be worth something someday ;)

You get to see art that would normally be hidden behind a speech bubble and the misprinted version doesn't even have the speech bubbles.

Tech_Head · 06-01-2022 11:49pm

Not readying much but just got copies of Ronin by Frank Miller and the Sandman Omnibus. Haven’t read either before so looking forward to giving them a shot.

Fysh · 07-01-2022 9:31am

Sandman Omnibus is a treat that will keep you busy for quite a while. Come to think of it, I'm probably due a re-read of it myself...

Tech_Head · 07-01-2022 9:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118431451#Comment_118431451

Hopefully, it’s a big ol book alright. Of course 1 and 3 are available but 2 seems to be out of stock everywhere

SamStonesArm · 07-01-2022 9:08pm

BRZRKR the Keanu Reeves comic. Got the first 6 comics and it's fair decent.

Fysh · 07-01-2022 10:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435860#Comment_118435860

Yeah, DC haven't been great about keeping those big collections in print :( They do turn up from time to time so best to keep an eye on the usual outlets and see if a copy turns up at a reasonable price.

Xofpod · 09-02-2022 5:52pm

Immortal Hulk Omnibus 2 for me. Still conflicted - half the time I think it's brilliant stuff, the other half I'm convinced it's generic marvel tat.

Gideon Falls vol 2 next to read, then - inspired by Sorrentino's art - on to the collected Mazeworld, the old 2000AD strip with the Arthur Ranson art.

mrcheez · 09-02-2022 7:34pm

Haven't had much time for reading as I'm getting through some PS4 / Switch backlogs, but I did get a chance to read one of the Ed Brubaker comics to start: Bad Weekend

Picked it because it's a single novel rather than a multi-volume affair.

Great script and characterisations, plus I enjoyed the art style which would be a little more traditional than the usual Sorrentino or Frazer Irving stuff I usually read.

Judging by the solid storyline I think I'm going to really love the rest of the Ed Brubaker stuff like Kill or be Killed next

What comic are you reading at the moment.

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