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So, what comics do people like? Recently I've been in an ALAN MOORE mood, no surprise there, I read volume one of 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' today and MAN it was wonderful! Quaint Victorianism, "gentlemanliness", the beginnings of 20th century technology, a load of great "fictional" characters including a rockin Invisible Man, and some BATTLING! Also 'Tom Strong' is GREAT, very innocent but pretty knowing at the same time, w/a lovely idea you can think about for quite a while in nearly every story (volume one, anyway, which was rather more grim and featured more villains)... and Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" is as good as I can imagine the X-Men being, mixing ACTUAL SERIOUS EMOTIONAL ISSUES w/big fights and great ideas and typical soapoperaish plotting... and yeah Daniel Clowes is always superb, esp the hideous and gripping and HAUNTING 'Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron'. 'David Boring' should be a movie. But yes, yrs?

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I thank Elisabeth for most of this, it was her that got into Clowes and led me back into comics stores so I bought 'New X-Men', and I read her Clowes books, and today she persuaded me to buy 'Extraordinary Gentlemen', thanks! And I'll read her 'Love and Rockets' books properly some day soon, I'm nearly over my puritan worries about GIANT BOOBS, and anyway I was misled when young by the pics the magazines I read about it in chose to use to represent it.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

not my bag baby.

― jonathan gittins (nevermind^), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm. I've been a Spider-man fan since birth. It's just how I was raised, so I will always have a love for those comics. I checked out 'David Boring' before, I think I got the eight ball graphic novel or issue or whatever the fuck it was, but to be honest, it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped for. I had seen lots of different sketches and random shit by Clowes in Juxtapoz Magazine, and I guess I was hoping for something more surreal and lively, something along the lines of R. Crumb. Juxtapoz is a really amazing art magazine if you haven't checked it out, so I recommend it highly.
I really enjoy the issues of 'Zap' comics that Crumb did. I also give my highest rating to Jim Woodring's 'Frank'... what a completely fucked up comic. But each panel is like a work of art, so I can't help but admire it. I also like Johanen Vasquez' 'Johnny the Homicidal Maniac' a great deal. But having absolutely no money does contribute to my inability to pick up new comics. If I were to get money for comics, I think I would try and find Frank Miller's take on Batman or perhaps that twisted take on superheroes that is 'The Watchmen'... oh, and I forget to mention that both 'From Hell' and 'The Sandman' are quite well done comic books as well.

― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Youz a pussy ass faggot cuzz, you aint no Crip hatin blood fool! Yo want ta bust a cap n sumbodzy ass yo fake azz busta yo never gonna get any cred in my hood muthafucka.Get yo head right homeboy!!!!!!!!!

In other words, "Blood" is a term for people that really do have balls (Gangstaz not a little faggots like yourself Andrew.Why not call yourself a "Cocksucking Whore" and be realistic for once my lame ass buddy asshole hmm?????????????????????????

― Adrian McCoy (Adrian McCoy), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

ghost world - clowes
peanuts - schulz
love and rockets (mostly the jaime stuff, i luv hopey glass)
everything r. crumb ever did, but espec. "that beautiful music of our grandparents, where has it all gone?", i love the panel of him screaming "i HATE bruce springsteen!! schlockmeister! pimp! panderer! exploiter of the innocent!!!", that's like my favorite moment in comics evah!
little lulu
donald duck et al - carl barks
krazy kat
little nemo and dreams of a rarebit fiend
mad (the harvey kurtzman era)
the tale of one bad rat

i hate superhero comics for the most part, except for the early marvel stuff.
that's all i can think of right now.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

You like the Jaime stuff? I find him sooooo boring, punks wow, Gilbert's WAY better!

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

It was a silly joke I just remembered the other day, I'm not in the mood for it anymore. Also James Blood Ulmer's probably too obscure for it to make sense.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I would like to recommend "Sugar Free Days" by Cole Johnson, you can buy it from moonrocket and the website for it is sleepover comics.

Renee French is amazing, though I've never got to see an actual whole comic by her - she does Grit Bath, just bits and pieces reproduced elsewhere...kiddies pulling animals apart and so on, ahh! Chris Ware's just completely off the charts fucking brilliant, track down his big book Jimmy Corrigan if you can. Daniel Clowes is so flawed, I wish I could find some decent articulation of some problems he has, but I did really enjoy David Boring recently, and A Velvet Glove (has this been made into a movie, ''cause I thought there were some plans to at some stage?? woulda been a better choice than ghost world I reckon). Discovered Lynda Barry this year, she's really good - One Hundred Demons and the Greatest of Marlys esp, gets so much about childhood so well. That's all I can be bothered talking about for now - I'm so hungry for comics it drives me insane - I'm always going to their place in the library but I've read most of the good stuff; it's so frustrating knowing there's so much stunning stuff out there - I wish there was a special comix librarian position I could have! - Dame Darcy's Meat Cake is now out in a compendium book. Oh one that I don't know if many ppl know of is Joe Chiapetta, he's great, he was working on a movie too. His comic that I know is Silly Daddy. I've started drawing a bit via hand and computer but I don't know if I'll be able to make comics; do you think I should try???? What would you like me to try to make them about? Does anyone else here draw comics or want to try? come on, it doesn't matter if you can draw good! (Can anyone help me out with examples of comix you've liked done by ppl who maybe can't draw that "well" - eg like obv Clowes and Julie Doucet and Dame Darcy and etc can draw well...). Oh another freaking brilliant spookily wow comixer = Jim Woodring.

as far as less underground/alternative/"cool", has anyone read the Maxx series?

I think The Fabulous Furry Freeak Brothers might be my favourite humourous comic EVER, it's SO SO SO FUCKING FUNNY AND BRILLIANT and oh how I wish I had some around to read and show people.

― cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Thursday, 21 August 2003 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Who the fuck is cuspidorian? A faggot into poetry? A gay thespian?

― Adrian McCoy (Adrian McCoy), Thursday, 21 August 2003 03:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I read some Jimmy Corrigan once, it was very memorable/creepy and sad. Yeah, you should definitely try and do some comics!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 03:28 (twenty-two years ago)

i like a buncha the stuff you people been talking about already (crumb, old MAD, bagge, clowes) but the best comic ever is lynn von schlichting's gilligan's island parody. the ship gets wrecked cause the skipper is busy fucking gilligan in the ass! gilligan spends all his time on the island masturbating & fucking monkeys! adrian you should try & find it, it's right up your alley i would say.

― duane, Thursday, 21 August 2003 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

it was in a old WEIRDO, i think from when aline kominsky crumb was the ed (btw liz that is 1 excellent cartoonist who can't really draw, i dunno, do you like her?)

― duane, Thursday, 21 August 2003 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Dan, was it '20th Century Eightball' you read? If not you could give that a try, it's an anthology that covers most of his range pretty well (at least as well as possible in 4-5 page max. stories, anyway), and it's often VERY surreal and lively.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a paidup member of the Bloods, however. You, sir, are no gentleman

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Btw what other types of Victorianism are there? Obv it's 'quaint', sorry

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to draw comics a whole bunch at the moment. It's really fun, you should do a comic book too Spectra. Maybe you should get a job in a comic shop that's close to a comix librarian I guess..

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

So has anyone read the Filth?? I'm thinking of getting it because I want a proper series to be buying at the moment.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't get the big deal about chris ware, honestly. his art is really boring. the real problem with clowes isn't his artwork, it's that his i-hate-everything-about-the-world shtick gets a bit monotonous if you read too much of it at once. it can also come off as smugly self-righteous, since clowes doesn't hate himself as much as crumb does. "ghost world" is the one long work i've read by him where he manages to avoid that, possibly because it's not about HIM for once. (and it is easily my single fave comic ever, so take my criticism of him with that in mind)

i second the "20th century eightball" recommendation, that has "l'il octagon" in it, which is just three pages of pure unadulterated genius! "i think it's really great that we can be best friends even tho you live in a horrible abandoned outhouse and i live in a mansion so big i've never even seen half the rooms in it!!"

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 21 August 2003 05:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i've seen some of aline kominsky's stuff, it's ok. i'd like to see more of sophie crumb's work.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the bit in Ghost World where Enid's going to the comic shop to meet Dan Clowes, see's he's this big dork and leaves. I like it when cartoonists hassle themselves.
I think David Boring would've worked better as a movie than Ghost World. Could probably do well with Like a Velvet Glove too, that's easily my favourite by him.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 07:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Mine is 'Grip Glutz and Shamrock Squid', it's miles above the rest of his oeuvre

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 08:11 (twenty-two years ago)

yes I like Aline KC heaps.

I don't think Clowes totally avoids his self-righteous and stupid "this type of loser" caricaturing thing that usually just doesn't work and makes him look like a tosser (not in th way he wants - cf depicting himself as a loser like when edith avoids him which I just find cringy) in Ghost World. Were you joking abt the comics shop thing E! I don't know if there's any comics shops in akl but you see, at least the library isn't full of geek crap and an absence of females. What's "the filth"?

― cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Thursday, 21 August 2003 08:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Weekly Grant Morrison thing. Spectra if you go to a comics shop it'll feature at least one female, right?

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 August 2003 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I wasn't joking, it'd be good to see more girls in comic stores. I'd love a job there! I already work at the library, it's seemed like such a great job at first but it eventually became pretty boring. The comics get taken out within 5 minutes of being returned so the selection isn't really that hot.
In the store you could sit behind the counter and read, also geeks aren't very threatening. I go to the comic shop 3 times a week sometimes.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I go to the comic shop 3 times a week sometimes.
just to look, not buy obviously.
Also job in comic store: you could order in all the stuff you liked and give them a greater range of stuff.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, what female cartoonists do i need to check out? my list is distressingly male-centric, there have to be some i'd like.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 21 August 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know that many, but I like Carrie McNinch's Assassin and the Whiner comic, but that's like a zine comic. Also I like Alison Bechdel.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah someone else suggest female cartoonists, I want more too.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 21 August 2003 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i just read "binky brown meets the holy virgin mary" by justin green. it's a pretty great story about this screwed-up catholic kid with a severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder who's constantly beating himself up for having impure thoughts about the virgin mary. the only bad thing about it is that the artwork is pretty terrible, but the writing is good enough to mostly excuse it. has anyone else read this?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 22 August 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

i used to read alison bechdel before the local weekly comics zine shut down, now i can't find her anywhere.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 22 August 2003 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Not I, sorry. And there are plenty of other types of Victorianism, Andrew. I believe there was plenty of class/race type shit going on, not too "quaint" right? Bring on the female comic makers!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 22 August 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

To be honest I'm not that distressed about it, though

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 22 August 2003 06:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I got a book out on Krazy Kat tonight, haven't read it yet.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 22 August 2003 07:12 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, what female cartoonists do i need to check out? julie doucet is great! mary fleener. i can't remember anyone else right now but back in the days when i used to read WEIRDO a lot of the people in there i liked were women, you should search out some back issues of that if you can

― duane, Friday, 22 August 2003 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Ariel Schrag is phenomenal. She started doing comics at high school, she was obsessed with biology (which she still is I believe), and the band No Doubt, and she gets this really mean girlfriend and it's especially great/affecting when she draws herself in this kind of horrible emotionally-impelled state where she goes all drooly and fucked up. It's incredible to see the progression in her drawings and expression and life. She has done alot, they came out as books, but they're not easy to come by, at least in this country.

yeah Doucet is great I've got her dead fish one, would love to see more. Phoebe Gloeckner's good but almost all really disturbing. She's a professional medical illustrator so she's an incredible drawer.

― cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Friday, 22 August 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Fags, all a bunch of fucking fags......

― Adrian McCoy (Adrian McCoy), Saturday, 23 August 2003 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

ahh! THAT'S where i read julie doucet!

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 23 August 2003 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok I just bought 'Watchmen' today, mmm. Let's see if it's as good as I remember it being, eh?

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn you Andrew, mail it to me now... ;)

― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

No way! I've been reading it for a couple of hours straight now, it's SO good. Go off and buy it.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 28 August 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 20th Century Eightball today and it is so great! I saw this Alan Moore book, can't remember the title but it looks really interesting and like something I'd really like but I had to hold myself back from buying too much. I might get it on the weekend it's only $36.95. NZ dollars of course.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 28 August 2003 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

I've got a whole bunch of Julie Doucet comics now, they're really fantastic. I love the cover art.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 10 October 2003 01:23 (twenty-two years ago)

where from?

― duckingmonster, Friday, 10 October 2003 06:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Drawn and Quarterly, they were really cheap. I paid for surface but I think they sent it air. I got the Madame Paul Affair on sale at a bookstore in Ponsonby

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 10 October 2003 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

damn so broke i have to shop vicariously. i love getting new comics you have to read them straight away. are you expecting good comics at the zine fest thingy?

― ducklingmonster, Friday, 10 October 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm hoping for some! Man that's something to look forward to.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 10 October 2003 06:55 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

this was a good thread.

i read love and rockets volume four ("tears from heaven") tonight, it was quite good. i've developed a new appreciation for gilbert's work (my previous attitude tended to be "this is brilliant! what the hell is going on?") tho being a twee punkette at heart i still like the locas stuff best.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 7 February 2004 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

ten months pass...

i wasted most of my winter break getting drunk and reading comics. how bout you?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 31 December 2004 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

let me guess: pina coladas and/or strawberry daiquiris?

for the first time in world history, new zealand is having winter break at the same time as the northern hemisphere. i'm spending mine hungover, eating noodles, watching the music channel and listening to "outsider" by juliana hatfield and "come on come on" by cheap trick over and over again.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 January 2005 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

nope and nope. tonight it's uber-cheap wine (hangover alert!!) and last night it was beer. which i still haven't learned to like the taste of.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 1 January 2005 08:26 (twenty-one years ago)

update: i kinda like the taste now. urrrrrrrrrrrghh.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 1 January 2005 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

justyn are you turning into a drunk?

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 January 2005 22:59 (twenty-one years ago)

don't cry for me, i'm already dead...

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 2 January 2005 10:43 (twenty-one years ago)

He has the soul of a poet!

― Minty (Minty), Monday, 3 January 2005 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i waste most of my life doing same JD

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 3 January 2005 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

or at least try to

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 3 January 2005 06:47 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

ZITS!!!!!

― SARAH BURNS, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

norco cheap norco buy norco

― norco, Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

http://web.archive.org/web/20060402182827/johnnyr.com/images/SYBW2004-10-25.jpg

― Heave Ho (Heave Ho), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

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