(book 3, page 2 for the error. it's still there in the 10th anniversary hardback)
― koogs, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 17:07 (eight months ago) link
If anything, Miller's decline makes DKR look better as time passes.Gotham Central is a worthy spiritual continuation of Year One, but no one's really come up with anything to replace DKR. Morrison made a great landmark Superman title with All-Star Superman (compared to Miller's tepid All-Star Batman), but turning Batman into a time-traveling caveman or a franchise operator didn't quite make for a DKR replacement, though I'd take those arcs over DKR2 & 3 any day (If you thought DKR was sloppy and incoherent...)
I guess you could think of Batman Beyond as the DKR competitor?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 17:35 (eight months ago) link
DKR's a classic! Klaus Janson's inks - classic! The colours - classic! The story - super pompous but whatever!
It's odd that DKR was the OG "superheroes for adults" comic, because, more than anything, it's a great comic for teenagers to read. And then grow out of. And never read again.
I agree Year One is better - but the Daredevil run is miles better than either.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 20 October 2023 20:48 (eight months ago) link
See, I think Watchmen is more "adolescent": kinda pretentious; squarely in the wheelhouse of a precocious youth... something you grow out of (even back then, though, I preferred DKR).
― strawberry ice cream, one scoop or two (morrisp), Friday, 20 October 2023 20:59 (eight months ago) link
watchmen wouldn't make my Alan Moore top10 but ain't no precocious youths interested in pirate comics come on now
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 20 October 2023 22:17 (eight months ago) link
Well not specifically no, but that was part of the package…
― strawberry ice cream, one scoop or two (morrisp), Friday, 20 October 2023 23:54 (eight months ago) link
Meanwhile, I've been enjoying a lot of classic 2000AD - getting towards the end of the Rogue Trooper omnibus - and I will say that one thing that I think separates me from a lot of the ppl writing for that mag back in the day is my childhood was not spent obsessing about battles from WWI&II.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 21 October 2023 17:04 (eight months ago) link
It is really weird in retrospect. Do you still get kids obsessed with war who make model airplanes? Do Blue Peter style children still exist?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 21 October 2023 22:57 (eight months ago) link
I still had friends who played with little green soldiers but my leftist parents would have none of this. Mind you I got into Arthurian legends and LOTR instead so still got excited by bloodshed. GI Joe was another thing my parents steered me clear off, though from all I've seen since it doesn't bear much resemblance to actual war.
I'd guess kids today who gravitate towards this kind of stuff would be into mecha animes or militaristic shooters (Call of Duty kinda the most direct equivalent?).
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 22 October 2023 11:29 (eight months ago) link
Isn't more that there was an existing (and successful) war comics magazine that Mills and Wagner got asked to set up an alternative to?
Which is all part of the "the generation above theirs processing wtf happened, through art"
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 22 October 2023 11:35 (eight months ago) link
there were a few, Battle and Action, not to mention all the Commando type things (which still exists)
― koogs, Sunday, 22 October 2023 11:42 (eight months ago) link
Andrew I'd argue it's several generations who were obsessed - yes there were successful war comics out at the time, so ver kids were reading that stuff and the 2000ad ppl knew this, but I think the artist's loving renditions, and the writer's tendency to make their sci-fi scenarios so often end up WWI/WWII comics in disguise, wasn't just about playing to the audience, they were really into that stuff too!
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 22 October 2023 12:24 (eight months ago) link
https://cloud.firebrandtech.com/api/v2/img/111/9780711290761/XLI can see why they didn't hire Rob Liefield for this one.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 23:50 (seven months ago) link
not out until March here, let us know how it is
― vashti funyuns (sic), Thursday, 9 November 2023 07:45 (seven months ago) link
lol not to be all jaymc spreadsheet but don't you both live in Australia?
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 9 November 2023 10:28 (seven months ago) link
I’m extremely unlikely to read this.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 9 November 2023 20:40 (seven months ago) link
Needs a scratch n’ sniff foot fetish edition
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 9 November 2023 21:26 (seven months ago) link
Correction to something I said upthread... The Shadow: In The Coils Of Leviathan was mostly drawn by Gary Gianni and others, Kaluta only did covers and illustrations
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 10 November 2023 15:13 (seven months ago) link
I have lived elsewhere for six years now.
Did read a due-out-in-translation-next-year GN yesterday, that in its lurid pop-art/Peter-Maxy visuals I at first took to be inspired by the Jodelle translation, and the plot riffing on the controlling nature of hi-tech-equipped music biz svengalis to be a throwback to Phantom Of The Paradise and The Apple, until it turned out to be from 1968.
― vashti funyuns (sic), Friday, 10 November 2023 20:51 (seven months ago) link
Did anyone get Perramus? It completely whooshed past me when I wasn't paying attention, even though I knew it was coming out.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 13 November 2023 19:19 (seven months ago) link
Yes, I have a copy - did it go out of print? I slightly prefer the Mort Cinder style but Perramus is kind of phenomenal in terms of sheer sustained pictorial effect - you can tell ppl like Sienkiewicz and McKean have paid it very close attention.
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 13 November 2023 19:42 (seven months ago) link
Apart from the fantagraphics site, prices are mostly very high
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 13 November 2023 20:07 (seven months ago) link
Bummer
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 13 November 2023 20:21 (seven months ago) link
I hope this reprint series is still happening, I think the Evita book came out recently. I'm surprised the Lovecraft book still hasn't happened because that seems like the most commercially viable one, I remember David Paleo telling me how amazing it was something like 20 years ago, often been tempted to get a spanish or french edition of it (same with Dino Battaglia, except italian).
Looking through Fantagraphics recent and upcoming has been impressive, A John Severin book of westerns, the sequel to My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Bill Everett's Venus, complete Web Of Horror. I'd like to check this out in the shops before I decidehttps://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-atlas-comics-library-no-3-in-the-days-of-the-rockets
I'm so grateful that comics can be flipped through before you read (presuming it's not sealed), films have sometimes reliable trailers and reading the first pages of a prose book never seems like a good indicator to me. And I like that I can get the gratification of good pictures before I actually read the thing properly (even though it spoils the impact of the storytelling a little) and a prose book really has to wait until the far off decade when I get around to reading it. ---NSFW---Never heard of this guy (he draws actual faces!), I pre-ordered it. NSFWhttps://www.fantagraphics.com/products/milky-wayhttps://imginn.com/mig.vila/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 18:52 (seven months ago) link
Yeah, a decent Battaglia English language collection is sorely needed. Since Kim Thompson's death, I suspect that Fantagraphics no longer has a Euro comics advocate pushing for things like that.
I've kept up with the Breccia reprints, but I slept on some of those new Corto Maltese translations and ppl now want STUPID money for those - and again, I don't imagine it's that economically viable to reprint any time in the near future (the fact that they are reprinting those three Alex Toth volumes does gives me some slight hope ...) And I suspect those lovely Sergio Toppi collections will go the same way fairly soon ...
Definitely looking forward to those Atlas volumes from Fanta. And this looks really interesting as well:
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/frank-johnson-pioneer-of-american-comics-vol-1-wallys-gang-early-years-1928-1949-and-the-bowser-boys-1946-1950
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 19:48 (seven months ago) link
I haven't moved on the Toppi books yet but the prices seem fine so far. I find it so difficult to tell with comics what will become rare and expensive, it's so much more unpredictable than the other books I buy (aside from print on demand books that get deleted).
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 21:33 (seven months ago) link
Talking of Fantagraphics, this all seems like a bit of a mess:
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/fantagraphics-sued-emil-ferris-over-my-favorite-thing-is-monsters/
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 09:55 (seven months ago) link
Dang. I was wondering what the hold up was.
My initial reaction to that, which is biased due to my work in museums and galleries and is most likely unfair to Emil Ferris, is that working with artists is a total pain in the ass. Especially if there's something like a deadline involved. I say that as an artist myself, and I recognize that corporations are not to be trusted.
I liked My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, but not as much as I was hoping to. The art was often beautiful but the story felt a little shaggy. It didn't bother me too much because that was sort of baked in to the nature of the narrative and the character that was telling the story.
Still, I've been looking forward to the second book.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 10:42 (seven months ago) link
What a mess. Despite some wonderful art I abandoned the first book without even realising it wasn’t even the complete story. I would have been pretty pissed off to have got to the end and found it wasn’t the whole thing.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 11:41 (seven months ago) link
That whole lawsuit is confusing as hell. Still, glad that the book is finally coming out, been waiting since 2017!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 13:58 (seven months ago) link
https://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2022/08/shigeru-mizuki-1922-2015.htmlhttps://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2022/07/kazuo-umezu.html
NSFW, very strangehttps://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2022/07/ichiro-ijima.html
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 20:28 (seven months ago) link
Umezu draws some of the most intense faces
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 21:00 (seven months ago) link
40% off sale on the fantagraphics site next Monday btw
― vashti funyuns (sic), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 21:07 (seven months ago) link
Thanks
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 21:18 (seven months ago) link
Never seen this one beforehttps://www.comics.org/issue/18626/cover/4/Are any of these ever as funny as they seem from the covers? Has DC ever done a compilation of their silliest 40s-50s-60s comics?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 24 November 2023 20:45 (seven months ago) link
Always wondered about this one, myself.
https://i.imgur.com/7bI7M0V.png
― peace, man, Saturday, 25 November 2023 17:14 (seven months ago) link
^That's v good art, except Supes looks 'roided-out
― This field is required (morrisp), Saturday, 25 November 2023 17:28 (seven months ago) link
Saint Muscle review
I read Udagawa Takeo's online abridged english edition of Manga Zombie perhaps a decade ago and Masami Fukushima's manga became holy grails for me; I didn't always get on with his art (how much of what I like or what I don't like is by assistant artists?) but it's a special kind of crazy that I can never get enough of and a precursor to things like Fist Of The North Star. There's some impressive architectural drawings including an immense palace encrusted with the bodies of petrified body builders, an evil Moby Dick and cruel rulers dressing peasants up like bizarre sheep before they torture them. I can't read the japanese text but I think I got the gist of it. I gather that Tsutomu Miyazaki (who unfortunately shares a name with a notorious serial killer) only filled in the dialogue, I don't know how common a practice this is in japan and if Fukushima's other books are written the same way. I think this book is much nicer looking than his monk books, it has a really off-kilter look and something reminiscent of Jack Kirby. Really bizarre but Prince Shotoku is even crazier.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 26 November 2023 02:57 (seven months ago) link
Superman Family cover is by Neal Adams, btw
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 27 November 2023 11:11 (seven months ago) link
Last night I finished the Daredevil Frank Miller omnibus (does not include Born Again or the John Romita Jr stuff). It was okay, but not as great as I was expecting. I suppose it had a lot of depth compared to what was beside it in the spinner rack, and the art was frequently quite good. Maybe I had to have read it back in the day. I probably need to give up on Frank Miller, who I’m beginning to suspect is over-rated. Or, I’m not really much of a super hero guy.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 27 November 2023 12:02 (seven months ago) link
xp Thanks, that's good to know!
― This field is required (morrisp), Monday, 27 November 2023 17:33 (seven months ago) link
Something I should have mentioned: I love this establishing location shot where a man's bare ass takes up most of the spacehttps://www.comipress.com/files/special/mangazombie/fukushima/Saintmuscle005.jpg
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 27 November 2023 21:23 (seven months ago) link
xxpost The early 80s Miller DD's were unlike anything else on those racks, believe me. I was snatching them up each month as they appeared. They were something else.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 27 November 2023 22:25 (seven months ago) link
Amazon wouldn't publish that Saint Muscle review because they said it looks like an attack on the author! I guess "crazy" "cruel" "serial killer" is what upset them. This is really dumb. Not as worrying as youtube but dumb.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 November 2023 19:35 (six months ago) link
Another great falseknees monthlong story (he does one every year now)
Starts here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzH5BnDLWhn/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 1 December 2023 11:53 (six months ago) link
Picked up an issue of Spirou as is my obligation whenever visiting France; can report Blutch is working on a Lucky Luke story and it looks lush.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 6 December 2023 10:40 (six months ago) link
Yes, hoping Cinebooks issue an English language translation of that next year.
I've actually been buying floppies this year - well, the facsimile editions that Marvel and DC are putting out. DC in particular are reprinting some incredibly rare (and expensive) Golden Age comics; I particularly like having the ads and the back up strips, really puts everything in context and - just for a moment - you can imagine yourself buying Batman 1 fresh off the newsstand.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 6 December 2023 12:22 (six months ago) link
Is it scans or recolored?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 7 December 2023 03:34 (six months ago) link
The Marvel facsimiles are all recolored; the colour on the DC ones, especially the Golden and Silver Age reprints, seem much more faithful to the originals without necessarily being scans.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 7 December 2023 08:40 (six months ago) link
Signs I'm getting to old for superhero comics: I spend a lot of time thinking about the practicality of things. Any sort of headgear that pokes out is going to constantly get knocked around. How many times does batman's little horns get donked while getting in and out of the batmobile? Does the batmobile have extra clearance to allow for the horns (or ears, I guess). Capes are always going to be a problem. If you use the bathroom and you have to sit on the toilet, that cape is going to be on the ground all around the toilet, or else you have to wad it in your lap I guess.
At work I wore a tape measure quite a bit, and that only stuck out an extra inch on my hip. I had to be pretty conscious of it to avoid knocking it on things. I can't imagine Cable with all of his pouches and tubes and extraneous bits.
Does Swamp Thing leave a trail of mulch behind him, wherever he goes?
How exactly is Cyclops visor (or his cool ruby sunglasses) held in place while all of that concussive force is pushing against it?
Do superhero costumes get laundered delicate or heavy duty, like towels?
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 7 December 2023 17:41 (six months ago) link