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Summer is over! The days are getting shorter, if not necessarily cooler! Comics are still coming out! To start this lovely season, chew on this interesting Twitter thread from Colleen Doran about research for comics: https://twitter.com/ColleenDoran/status/1442162506139586564 (It's long, so click through!)
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Sep 27, 2021 16:32
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 01:13 |
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How can it be fall already when I made the summer thread only two weeks ago?? Time is but an illusion. 
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Sep 28, 2021 11:23
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I read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. It's very good.
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Sep 28, 2021 14:12
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The best new comic of the fall is on Marvel unlimited and it’s “It’s Jeff”
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Sep 28, 2021 17:14
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Gripweed posted:I read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. It's very good. The Pogo story is extremely good.
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Sep 28, 2021 19:59
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Alhazred posted:The Pogo story is extremely good. Oh yeah, I really liked that part. And the one issue where Swamp Thing becomes the father of planets that's a horrifying hosed up nightmare. Comics don't do that enough anymore, have one issue that's just a standalone thing by itself The Moore run of Swamp Thing also features the best Hawkgirl costume Gripweed fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 20:13
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RevKrule posted:The best new comic of the fall is on Marvel unlimited and it’s “It’s Jeff” And, holy loving poo poo, Marvel is both discussing and fixing bugs in Unlimited https://twitter.com/MarvelSupport/status/1439940071134842881?s=20
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Sep 28, 2021 21:40
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I feel like I should do some reading project for the new thread, but I don't have any idea what. Maybe the output of some short-lived third tier superhero line..
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Sep 28, 2021 22:37
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Random Stranger posted:I feel like I should do some reading project for the new thread, but I don't have any idea what. Maybe the output of some short-lived third tier superhero line.. Malibu?
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Sep 28, 2021 22:55
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Skwirl posted:Malibu? I actually thought about that, but I don't want to bring up a pedophile constantly. I think I have a fun, short option, though. I was tempted to do the New Universe, but I've... er... read all of those before...
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Sep 29, 2021 00:49
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Impact Comics were great. If you can even find them now that is. The Comet was particularly a favorite of mine. It was pretty shortlived though.
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Sep 29, 2021 00:52
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Random Stranger posted:I actually thought about that, but I don't want to bring up a pedophile constantly. Do an old Vertigo title that isn't Swamp Thing, Sandman, Lucifer or Hellblazer. Edit: it'd fit with October coming up
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Sep 29, 2021 01:01
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Skwirl posted:Do an old Vertigo title that isn't Swamp Thing, Sandman, Lucifer or Hellblazer. Right neighborhood for my idea, but much, much lower quality.
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Sep 29, 2021 01:29
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Random Stranger posted:Right neighborhood for my idea, but much, much lower quality. I looked up the suggestion I made in jest and whoa, absolutely not. Pastry of the Year fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Sep 29, 2021 |
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Sep 29, 2021 13:36
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So, a little while ago I put my big Onslaught read on hold, in large part because I was having enough fun with it that I decided to loop back all the way and read every single mutant and mutant-adjacent comic put out by Marvel since 1963. It has taken me this far to get to 1985, right on the doorstep of Secret Wars II, and I've made the potentially misguided decision to just go ahead and read every Secret Wars II tie-in, if nothing else as a way to get a taste for everything else going on in Marvel outside of the stuff I'm following. It is actually a much more contained crossover than I'm imagined, coming in at a prim and petite 41 issues, which is perhaps actually kind of way too much Beyonder, but feels kind of manageable. Would people be interested in a thread about this? I imagine that Secret Wars II is one of those things that is thought about and gossiped about more than it is actually read, and I reckon that a lot of people know very little about it other than that it's supposed to suck and that Spider-Man teaches the Beyonder how to poop.
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Sep 30, 2021 15:59
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 But seriously, yes I would be interested in reading that.
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Sep 30, 2021 16:28
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How Wonderful! posted:go ahead and read every Secret Wars II tie-in I did this a while back and I actually liked it, for the most part, and I would love to read your reading of it.
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Sep 30, 2021 17:02
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How Wonderful! posted:So, a little while ago I put my big Onslaught read on hold, in large part because I was having enough fun with it that I decided to loop back all the way and read every single mutant and mutant-adjacent comic put out by Marvel since 1963. It has taken me this far to get to 1985, right on the doorstep of Secret Wars II, and I've made the potentially misguided decision to just go ahead and read every Secret Wars II tie-in, if nothing else as a way to get a taste for everything else going on in Marvel outside of the stuff I'm following. I think it's obvious that I absolutely love deep dives into the odder parts of comics.
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Sep 30, 2021 18:13
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I was going to say I wasn't, but I see the Marvel Unlimited Pirate Kate is up now and I guess I will have a year of MU.
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Oct 1, 2021 04:13
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Let me take you back to a simpler time, the early 1990's. Comic books were booming and everyone wanted to cash in. Smaller publishers were starting up superhero lines that would quickly sputter and die out. Larger publishers were trying to bully everyone else off the shelves by flooding the market with comics. But what if one of those big companies were to make their own short lived superhero line? Well, okay, they both did in a few different forms. But given the cooling weather and the presence of pumpkin spice cheerios, it's time to send a chill up your spine with the master of horror's own line of extra-edgy superhero books. And how do you know it's edgy? Well, the title of the line tells you that! I give you Clive Barker's Razorline: A Bad Idea in Eleven-ish Parts Don't know it? Well, there's a good reason for that. This is one of those situations where a comic company, Marvel in this case, got in touch with someone famous and had them suggest a few characters, then handed them off to some third-stringers (though there's at least one name in there so far who would go on to bigger and better things). It's a formula that has never worked and yet it keeps happening. The line consisted of four comics and most of them ran for nine issues. One fell short of even that mark. There's also a couple of specials and the subject of this post: a discount book with a short story based on each comic that was intended to launch the line. Brief aside here, someone I know was at the retailer summit where Marvel introduced Razorline with Clive Barker and Stan Lee on stage at the same time. Apparently Barker told some crude sex jokes about the Fantastic Four which had Lee rolling. Now I'll kick this off with Razorline: First Cut. Inside the cover is a brief introduction by Barker who assures us that this is only the beginning and many more series will be part of the line. The setting is the "Decamundi", a group of ten worlds. A bit more generic stuff about how great comics are and how great Razorline is and he's out. (The couple of hundred words Barker wrote can be found at his website if you really want to read it for some reason. I found it because I wasn't sure if Decamundi was a thing he was pulling from his other works.) Hokum and Hex - I'm glad the text introduction to this one told me it was supposed to be a comedy because I would have never gotten that from the story. Some warrior on a planet dedicated to war has snuck into a cathedral to watch the god of the world sacrifice some guy to himself in preparation for the invasion of the earth. The god is anti-abortion and thinks women belong in the kitchen, so you know where you're supposed to stand with him. After the beheading and the grandiose speech about invading the earth, the guy who snuck in drops his banana peel on the floor and the god slips on it. Rather than kill the person who was caught, they're placed at the vanguard of the invasion force. The end. So, the main character doesn't appear in the story that's supposed to be selling me on getting his comic. Not a good start. This one is written by Frank Lovece and drawn by Anthony Williams and I am not looking forward to a "funny" book when the writer thinks this is the height of comedy. Saint Sinner - A monk is working on an illuminated manuscript telling the story of Saint Sinner. He was possessed by a demon that turned him into a serial killer, then the demon made him kill an angel and that act bound both the angel and demon permanently to him. Now Saint Sinner goes around being the guy in between good and evil. The monk wasn't a monk, though, just a guy in a bathrobe who was forging a manuscript to hand of to some kind of spirit who then summons Saint Sinner through a television in order to pay the man for his work. He wants to be famous and Saint Sinner goes, "Okay, you die in a fire now and that'll make your art well known. Sucks to be you." Only more portentous because that's the kind of story this is. This one is a bit more promising. Okay, I need more than warmed over Twilight Zone twists, but it's got a Vertigo-ish premise that could be used for some interesting things. Elaine Lee wrote it and she seems to be fine from this sample, but the stand out here is Max Douglas on the art where he seems to be mixing electronic media and traditional art. It actually looks pretty cool, especially for a 1993 comic. Fingers crossed for this one to be interesting. Hyperkind - A woman in some very 90's armor fights a lizard alien who is mad that she has powers that belong to lizard aliens. Her "powers" seem to be firing a big gun out of her armor, so I don't know what he's talking about there. There's a guy who's dying but has been trying to hand out powers. The woman can't take on the lizard alien, but then two more characters show up: a guy who is just the Vision and a scaly guy in a biker outfit who has swords for hands. Together they will fight the lizard alien. The end. So pretty much no set up, no reason to care, and even the action looks flat. The art is by Paris Cullins who seems to be pulling a Herb Trimpe and going full 90's; it looks terrible compared to his usual art. The story is by Fred Burke who in the text piece after the "story" says that Hyperkind are "Clinton-era superheroes" which does not give me a lot of hope. Ectokid - Oh god, he's a Cajun thief. One page and I'm already thinking more fondly of Gambit. Our thief is Dex and he's left New Orleans to go meet a voodoo woman in a swamp. He tells her about how he suddenly found himself in a warped version of New Orleans where he met a dead serial murderer who tried to kill him. In the end, he thinks it must have been a dream. But meanwhile, two sinister figures are plotting against him. James Robinson wrote this one and while it's the most coherent story I got out of this book, it also makes me think that Ectokid the comic is going to be pretty generic. The character who can walk between two worlds and see the dead was a pretty common fantasy trope already. Steve Skroce penciled this one and it was fine. So I've got one book I'm pretty hopeful for and three that have me worried. The ten worlds premise seems to only be used in one of the comics since Ectokid is seeing dead people instead of another planet. Overall, this would not have me interested enough to buy any of these series which is a bad sign since it's a promotional book. Next time, I get some foil embossed #1s! I'm sure they'll be worth a ton someday!
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Oct 1, 2021 04:23
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´tis the season https://twitter.com/RamonVillalobos/status/1443955413607612416
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Oct 1, 2021 16:10
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https://twitter.com/aaronmfking/status/1443678395137679363?s=20
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Oct 1, 2021 18:33
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To quote Sam Jackson on that re-color: this is some hosed up repugnant poo poo.
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Oct 2, 2021 04:36
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That’s hosed up
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Oct 2, 2021 05:08
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i feel like you have to be intentionally loving it up to do it that badly
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Oct 2, 2021 05:48
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X-O posted:Impact Comics were great. If you can even find them now that is. The Comet was particularly a favorite of mine. It was pretty shortlived though. Oh man I tried to get all the Comet comics a few years back and think I have about about 4 issues missing. Comet is a lot of fun. The other Impact titles are hit and miss and they are definitely aimed at pre teens who only want boobs and violence. I still hold that Black Hood was an awesome concept for a character as well.
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Oct 2, 2021 05:51
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Gripweed posted:I read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. It's very good. Did you manage to make it through the alien digital planet issue? I have reread the run. Few times but could never finish that issue no matter how much I tried.
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Oct 2, 2021 05:52
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What on earth? Usually recolour efforts like this bring the colouring more in line with modern methods and styles. I have no idea what this is supposed to be.
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Oct 2, 2021 08:17
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Zub was talking about working on this on Twitter the other day- https://twitter.com/JimZub/status/1443767617781706753?s=19
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Oct 2, 2021 12:05
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Madkal posted:Did you manage to make it through the alien digital planet issue? I have reread the run. Few times but could never finish that issue no matter how much I tried. Oh yeah, I read it easily all the way through on my first try. It was the easiest thing in the world for me.
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Oct 2, 2021 14:59
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The issue with that particular recolour isn’t just that it’s different from the original. It’s that it’s ugly as sin. The ones Zub posted aren’t as interesting to me (I like the vibrancy of the Marvel originals), but they’re pretty well done colours going for a particular more realistic style.
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Oct 2, 2021 15:05
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Huh. I can certainly see why Marvel might not like this. https://www.cracked.com/article_314...ie-52jh3ubzNh_Y
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Oct 3, 2021 18:52
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Razorline Retrospective #2: #1s Just so you know, all of these are foil embossed because we're going pure 90s! Hokum & Hex #1 quote:There are women in Manhattan. Wow is this badly written. Trey is a really lovely stand-up comic. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to find him funny and he's just down on his luck, but he's really unfunny. Anyway, his girlfriend leaves him and he's attacked by monsters sent by a god of another dimension because Trey is the designated guardian of the earthrealm. He's gained the ability to unconsciously transform unliving things in ways that make emotional sense to him, like a ring choking people or a rubber chicken becoming a chicken monster. Trey beats the monsters through the use of magicians tricks turned deadly. He also picks up an assistant from another dimension who he makes look like his ex-girlfriend. Then they head off to the Empire State Building because that's where he threw a bunch of tarot cards from the day before and tarot cards can act as gateways between worlds as long as Roger Zelazny's lawyers don't know about it. Another monster attacks and throws him off the building. There really is nothing worse than unfunny comedy. It's like having your teeth pulled. And the overwrought narration in this book doesn't help either. Unless something big changes, this one is going to be pretty much unreadable. Saint Sinner #1 The very first thing in this issue is recommendation of what music to listen to as you read the comic. And I mean at the top of page one. It's N.W.O.'s Ministry, FWIW. I did not take their recommendation. Phillip is a jerk kid who was exploring a sewer while carrying a flaming torch when he started hearing voices telling him to do things. He's been possessed by a demon and he kills his friends, kills some cheerleaders, but killing his parents is a step too far. So Phillis throws himself off a pier and tries to drown. He's pulled from the water by a woman and Phillip kills her too, but she was an angel and her essence joins the demon in his head. Then he's abducted by the demon's brothers and take him to hell (called the Amen! complete with exclamation point) where he's tortured for years trying to get the demon out. Then he leads a jailbreak of the strange prisoners of hell. This really feels like second tier early Vertigo. Trying way too hard to be edgy, characters who you have to spend way too much time trying to sort out their speach patterns and lettering. It's not bad, it's just why read this when any of the Vertigo books already exist. I like the art quite a bit, though. I am hoping that this one settles down now that the origin is done with. I'm not sure what the point of the book is, yet. So far all we have is a character. What I want from the next issue is to give the book a direction. Hyperkind #1 The first few pages here are literally the exact same pages that were in the preview comic. Then it jumps back to give me an origin for the team but no real understanding of who the characters are or what they can do. There's a homeless man with golden ankhs who's actually a forgotten superhero and he stumbles across Lisa who dresses like it's 1985 and just broke up with her suit wearing boyfriend Kenny because he wanted an open relationship with a punk girl, Dyan. There's also a skater guy who's just hanging around with them, too, who I'm not sure got named in the comic. Anyway, an old enemy finds the forgotten hero and he sends Lisa off with a key to the lab where he keeps his superhero making machines. She climbs in one to be given a metal skeleton and gets 90's armor. The rest of the group followed her and when the lizard alien attacks, they all get into the superhero making machines, too. It feels like a lot pages where made but nothing really happened in them. I don't have any clue who any of these people are after this first issue which is supposed to be the launch of a new superhero team. Obviously they're setting up the team to fight amongst themselves a lot, but it's really hard to care. Ectokid #1 Tom is robbing hotel rooms in New Orleans when he's seduced by three women. Before they get it on, he slips into another world where he sees them as monsters. Fleeing, they pursue along with a whole host of creatures. Tom is cornered only to be saved by Cyrano de Bergerac. Some mysterious guys are mad that Tom has slipped through their fingers again and this time they're going to get serious. Again. Actually, this one was the most readable of the four comics this time. It's slight, but it told a story and I understood what was happening even though the main character didn't really get it yet. I also really like the art for the ghost world stuff; it shifts from a clean, normal style to exaggerated and cartoony. This one isn't great, but it's fine.
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Oct 4, 2021 04:28
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I really liked the Alan Moore Swamp Thing, so I decided to read more Swamp Thing. I got Swamp Thing: Protector of the Green. Whoo boy did that piss me off. I had heard that the origin from Moore's Swamp Thing got retconned, it went back to Swamp Thing being Alec Holland, so I was ready for that. But it turned out to be way worse! They didn't retcon it, they just declared it all canonically bad and stupid. The Swamp Thing that was pure vegetable, the one who went to hell to try to save the universe, who unknowingly became the father of living worlds, who saved an alien planet from famine, who became practically a god in his own right, and through it all was guided by his unshakeable love for his wife, that Swamp Thing did exist. But he was a mistake, a stand-in created out of desperation when the real Swamp Thing became unavailable, and then he died and is completely unmourned. Even his wife doesn't care about him anymore because she picked right up on a relationship with the real Swamp Thing, the guy everyone wanted all along, who was prophesized to to become the best Swamp Thing ever. It sucks!
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Oct 4, 2021 23:21
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Hey X-O, How Wonderful - When is BSS getting a Halloween name change? The people are crying out for "Batman's Sweets Stash" or something.
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Oct 6, 2021 06:04
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Continuing my terrible October reading with Clive Barker's Razorline Part 3 Hyperkin #2 - The lizard guy they've been fighting since the preview has finally been given a name: Thermakk. Ah, 90's character names; they hold up even worse than comic book names normally do. We also get the superhero name for one of the characters on page four. Logix is the guy who looks just like the Vision only with more circuitry. In the thirty seconds he's been a robot, he's also starting thinking things like "it's almost beyond even my ability to comprehend!" Oh, and they just know what each other are called now. The last team member emerges from her super power pod and it turned her from a punk worm with short, dark hair into a blonde centerfold who gets a splash page so readers can see how hot she is. Then Thermakk abducts the other female team member so the fight can go to another location, then it moves to yet another location. Thermakk reveals that he just wants their powers back because they're not supposed to have them and bad things can happen, but he's also a violent lizard man on a rampage so it's not like anyone is going to listen to him. Eventually he just runs off vowing to return and the team settles in to give you the roster. Armata is the woman in 90's armor with big guns on her hands. Logix looks just like the Vision and has the power to do things with machines. Amokk is the guy with swords for hands and he was permitted five seconds to have a moment about it ("I'll never play guitar again with these!" Yeah, I'd worry about going to the bathroom, myself). Bliss is the designated sexy woman and she makes illusions. This book is a prime example of the terrible new superhero team books of the 90's. Some people who have no reason to be together, terrible names, vaguely defined abilities for both the heroes and the villains, writing where you were supposed to know all the back story because you bought the trading cards. They desperately wanted to be the X-Men but were all so lazy about it. Ectokid #2 - And now we're getting a proper premise for the book. Dex has realized that he sees the spirit world out of one eye and the living world out of the other, so he has an eyepatch that he switches between them. He thinks his mother knows what is happening to him and why people are hunting him, so he goes to talk with her at an insane asylum. There he gets the story that she summoned a ghost and they wound up loving leading to him. Also, his ghostly father was building a superscience machine when he was murdered but hid the machine and that's probably why Dex is being hunted. There's a perfunctory fight and then we see how the people after him are closing in. This one is actually improving. It's by James Robinson so it's not a surprise that it's turning out halfway decent. Not brilliant, but perfectly enjoyable and I'm kind of hoping that there's some kind of resolution to the story for this one when we reach the end. Hokum & Hex #2 - When last we left failed comedian with the power to transform props Trip, he had been thrown from the top of the Empire State Building. He survives by phasing through the ground until he came to rest in a cavern deep below Manhattan. Then after getting back to the surface, he talks to his best friend who goes on to roast him as part of a "comedy" set. Then aliens attack and Trip can't figure out his powers are "gag" based, so his friend gets hurt in the attack. Now this one continues to be painfully unfunny. An entire page representing a really lovely set. There's other subplots but none of them really matter since I doubt they're going anywhere. This comic is just a slog to read. Saint Sinner #2 - Phillip has returned from hell and it's been nine years for him and one day for everyone else. While the other things he released from hell hang out in a sewer and dispose of some bodies, Phillip returns to his home. There he uses his power to age and de-age things to cure his grandfather's Alzheimer's, kill his family dog, and freak out his parents. Then the police show up to ask him some questions and when Phil's touch burns the detective, the cops open fire with their pistols and riddle his body with tranquillizer darts. While nonconscious, the demon prods Phillip to kill his younger self and he refuses. Meanwhile, the hell escapees make their own universe. Phillip wakes up in a padded cell. He escapes and heads off to the new world. I still don't know what this book is about, but it does seem wrapped up in multiple layers of obfuscation. You've got five major characters where you have to put in effort to figure out what they're saying. The escapees from Hell seem like they're the supporting cast but I still don't get them; there's a guy made of static, a patchwork woman, and "bull baby" which is a seven foot tall baby with horns. For what should have been an emotionally important scene, Phillip doesn't really interact with his parents at all. And then the detective who was investigating the murders Phillip did while possessed thinks he might be a "dark saint" for absolutely no reason. I thought the comic might find its feet with the set up done away with in the first issue, but this issue was also just rushing through setting up the premise of the book.
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Oct 6, 2021 12:01
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Cartridgeblowers posted:Hey X-O, How Wonderful - When is BSS getting a Halloween name change? The people are crying out for "Batman's Sweets Stash" or something. It is in the works!
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Oct 6, 2021 13:05
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I’ve been reading some DC golden age stuff lately and I have to say that Starman has been a pleasant surprise. Golden Age stuff in general is hokey and has exposition-heavy dialogue but the Starman stuff I’ve read is better written than its contemporaries.
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Oct 6, 2021 17:25
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Random Stranger posted:I feel like I should do some reading project for the new thread, but I don't have any idea what. Maybe the output of some short-lived third tier superhero line.. When you're finished with Razorline if you want more to cover perhaps THUNDER Agents could be a good choice, or maybe Project Superpowers if you want something a bit more modern CopywrightMMXI posted:I’ve been reading some DC golden age stuff lately and I have to say that Starman has been a pleasant surprise. Golden Age stuff in general is hokey and has exposition-heavy dialogue but the Starman stuff I’ve read is better written than its contemporaries. Golden Age stuff is usually pretty fun to dig into even if the comics themselves are often kind of bad in many respects Also just found out a few days ago that someone went and started using Public Domain Superhero Power Nelson, The Future Man as their V-Tuber avatar which is a bit of a neat thing
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Oct 10, 2021 05:36
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 01:13 |
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drrockso20 posted:When you're finished with Razorline if you want more to cover perhaps THUNDER Agents could be a good choice, or maybe Project Superpowers if you want something a bit more modern Yeah, im working through everything I have (all trades/reprints) in a chronological reading order and I’m just getting into the post-WW2 stuff now and it’s getting a lot better. The stories are more coherent, the panel structures are getting more creative, the characters are better defined and some of the more recognizable villains are finally debuting. The Green Lantern 80th anniversary hardcover has the debuts of Vandal Savage and Solomon Grundy and both stories are pretty decent.
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Oct 10, 2021 20:04
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