|
Come on, I am in too.
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2018 21:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
I have read like 15 comics off the whole list in my life and I got a repeat  . I am a bit pressed for time (going overseas for work on the 23th) but I am not THAT bad off, so if you want, give me a reroll. If not, expect a trip report soon.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2018 22:02
|
|
|
So, I read Seaguy. There goes a totally subjective (and probably inaccurate) take on it... Overview In a Disneyfied world (the corporation, not the pretty talking animals), villains are extinct, superheroes are unneeded, and everyone eats the same Xoo-brand foodstuff ("what is it?" "It is new!") and watches cartoons in the place of terrible news. The titular superhero and his pet, a talking tuna with a funny aksent and a sailor's hat, will try to unravel the mysteries behind a... meteorite attack on Earth? Except now it is not that, but a sentinent batch of food that begs for help? The thing is, he wants to impress a pretty warrior girl with a curly beard who is looking for a true hero. With that on mind, they set off, and soon everything complicates... Overall impression To be honest, this three-issues comic is extremely not my cup of tea. I am not one to enjoy extremely surreal stories, and I wouldn't have picked this for myself. That said, this is part of the challenge. I read somewhere that Seaguy is meant to be read as a comedy; if that is true, it did nothing for me. The atmosphere feels opressive and dystopic from the start. It is also very, very, very surreal and sometimes I wondered what the hell I was reading. The relative shortness of it does not do the pace any favours, although to be honest I think that is totally intentional. Storylines change from one page to the next, leaving almost nothing resolved. It feels dreamlike, except the dream is a nightmare. Behind all that lies a rather ham-fisted criticism of giant corporations, the edulcorated world they create and the misery (humane and enviromental) they cause. This has been done before, and I think also better, but it does not mean Seaguy's vision is at all bad. It just feels a bit predictable, which is funny considering the story as a whole is anything but that. The shortness and quick pace, again, leaves the intended message a bit muddled. The art is pretty. The artist nails the "Disney" feel as well as clearly distinguishes the pieces that aren't part of it. It is clean, enjoyable and readable without being overly simplified. I honestly think it is one of the strongest assets of the comic. Veredict I did not really enjoy Seaguy too much. But to be fair to it, it is a visually pretty, short, trippy read which I am sure has its fans, and that is fair too. It just didn't click for me. I can't really judge its position in the list -it is on the "good, not world changing stories" zone, probably rightly so. I'll give it a 6/10, and also recommend it to any fans of surreal, dreamlike stories that may be out there. It is not bad, but it definitely is an acquired taste. Shellception fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jan 7, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2018 23:45
|
|
|
That was short and quick. Spin me again.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2018 15:16
|
|
|
Lick! The! Whisk! posted:You get 420. (nice.) Garfield: Alone. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Come on. The RNG is trolling me  . I will review that, and resign myself to the fact that next time I am probably getting a single Newspaper Spider Man comic.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2018 23:05
|
|
|
Overview Our protagonist, unnamed throughout the story, wakes up in an all-too familiar place. However, as time passes, he begins to realize small, subtle changes around which seem to point out that not everything is all right. Facing his deepest fears, he will struggle to find a way out... of where? Overall impression The comic plays with the fish-out-of water goofy character suddenly finding himself out of his place, both really and metaphorically. As he faces his worst fear, he becomes little more than an avatar, a vehicle for the reader to project themselves in. And so, we follow him along a series of increasingly disturbing realizations. This is not his home. There's nobody around. This is not his time. The episodic nature (at the time of its release) of the comic does not help matters, as every issue ends in a cliffhanger. The ending is also nebulous: was it all a dream? Is he (are we?) safe, back to an all-familiar world? Or have we become irremediably lost in nowhere? Are we damned to an existence without all we love? Without ourselves? No answers are given. At the time of its release, the ambiguous ending prompted a myriad of alternate interpretations, and an urban legend that would become even more famous than the strip. In accordance with the story, the usually rather colorful art style is also twisted around. Colors are darkened, with overabundance of purples and blues, and inked over, and dramatic angling is used for a lot of the scenes. As the protagonist starts confusing his memories and perceptions, so the coloring switches between bright and dark. The effect really adds to the overall feel of the story. Veredict I have not read it in its original format, so a lot of its original impact may be lost on me. Today we know what was really going on in the cartoonist's mind (which to be honest, it is not that interesting in itself - he wanted to do a different Halloween story and asked "what is your deepest fear?" to a bunch of people, then drew six consecutive strips dealing with the most common answer). We also know that the ambiguous ending is just that, purposefully ambiguous; no ghost legends or conspiracy theories attached. It is a piece of urban story in itself, moreso for what it represented than for its artistic or narrative value. Just for it, though, it deserves a place on the "good" zone of the list. Though, more than good, it is just odd and out of place. We are all Garfield and we are all alone. (There it is, I reviewed a Garfield strip. Please, spin me something, no repeats. I hope I get a drat comic this time around) Shellception fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jan 12, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2018 19:57
|
|
|
Lick! The! Whisk! posted:
I will need to request an extension on this. I got the trade in Comixology without hassle, but I am currently staying in Japan for a month and the connection here randomly blocks things like the Comixology reading page (I can access the main page just fine, but as soon as I try to read something, it says "Store is unavailable"). I will be back home on the 25th of February, so any date after that is fine.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2018 10:55
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
I am here. Will do the review later today or tomorrow. Sorry about the delay, life got very in the way of things. ---  There it goes (finally!). This is a review for Top Ten by Alan Moore, with Gene Ha and Zander Cannon in the pencils. Overview: In a multiversal futuristic society, rookie detective Robin Slinger (Toybox) joins Precinct 10, the main police headquarters of Neopolis, which is as diverse as the city itself. As the main population of Neopolis are either robots, possessors of various superhuman powers (so frequent that more than a couple little children along the story are nonchalantly mentioned to "have started showing their powers") or alien/extraterrestrial beings, the police cases quite frequently become very interesting, very fast. The police precinct itself includes Bill "Wolfspider" Bailey, the leader and a veteran officer who lost his legs in a teleporter accident; sergeant Kemlo "Hyperdog" Caesar, a super-intelligent Doberman in a human exosqueleton; Officer Duane "Dust Devil" Bodine, a literal space cow-boy who lives with his mother, and his partner Officer Peter "Shock-headed Pete" Cheney, who controls electricity and is extremely racist against robots; Lieutenant Cathy "Peregrine" Colby, a bulky armored woman who is a Born Again Christian, and her partner Sergeant Jackie "Jack Phantom" Kowalski, who can turn immaterial and is openly lesbian; Officer Alexei "Spaceman" Glushko, an alcoholic former Soviet cosmonaut who lives with his friend Tanya, a sentient chimpanzee, after a freak space accident gave them both powers; or Detective John "King Peacock" Corbeau, who is a Yazidi and worships Melek Taus, who in turn confers him powers. With the overarching plot of a killer ("Libra") who beheads its victims, young women, after horrifically killing them, the comic also goes on a series of secondary cases and slice-of-life scenes of the precinct detectives. Overall impression: I think anyone would be more suited than me, a casual comic reader, to talk about the authors; however, even I know Alan Moore and his Watchmen or The Killing Joke. Man isn't short of a legend. However, Top Ten is not Watchmen. Or maybe it is, if we stripped away all darkness and dystopian elements and kept the "love-hate letter to a generation of superheroes" part. Because that is, mostly, what Top Ten is. A good number of heroes and supervillans are based on well-known (and not so) Marvel and DC superheroes, and shout-outs to lots of stories can be found in little details along the story. However, instead of wrapping it on an impeding apocalypse, Moore keeps Top Ten's society as a working arrangement of forces. Not perfect by any means; crimes are committed and people die (and worse) in horrible ways. But it is "all part of the job" and at the end you get something that wouldn't be out of a evening crime soap opera, if the detectives could fly and zap things and the pathologists could perform examinations by shrinking and casually walking inside the dead bodies. They are human beings: they get attracted to each other, screw up their jobs, talk too much, talk too little, are racist or speciesist or religious fanatics. But the combination really works to not make them cardboard cutouts; for example, anti-robot guy, who is depicted as much of an rear end in a top hat, is also shown to be very affected after a negligence of him causes an unrelated civilian's death. The very cold, professional pathologist has to deal with "living people" for once, as she's the one to give very bad news to a witness (he's sick and he'll very probably die shortly). The reputated team leader, one of the oldest and better regarded heroes of Neopolis, has also been hiding a very personal secret he is gay and living with one of his old teammates. Humor and action cases are interwoven with dramatic moments, sometimes so quickly that it hits unexpectly hard. In true Alan Moore fashion, not everything can be solved by superpowers, however varied and powerful they may be. This is not to say the story does not have its problems. For example, although gratuitous rape is thankfully almost absent from the story, there is still a very prominent instance of it in the main case's resolution. The "mighty heroes falling" theme is also rather recurrent, so much that the resolution of some of the most important threads of the story becomes a bit predictable. Also, the boatload of characters means that, even if almost all of them get their day-in-the-spotlight, some just fall by the sides and are hard to keep track on as they come and go, a fact that is not helped by everyone having odd powers. However, for the most part it remains an enjoyable, light read. Art is good, and I wish I could say more about it. Incredibly detailed backgrounds that really help immersion, well-detailed characters with consistent, eye-catching designs; if any objections can be raised, it's that sometimes inking seems to muddle face details a bit, and that there's a limited number of ways you can draw distinct superhuman people; however, the artists manage to stretch their limits quite a bit. The art only adds to the overall feeling of the story, making it feel alive. Overall impression: I liked it. I really did. It was entertaining, light reading that read like it could have gone on to become a permanent series, although looking back on it I am glad it didn't; it would probably have burned out. I have not read the sequels-spinoffs, so I can't confirm my impression, although apparently, in addition to the rape plotline, some incest shows up as well. I can live without that, I guess. So I'll stick to the main series, give it a well-deserved 9/10, and I'll agree with its position on the list (49 at the time of issuing, although it may have moved around now). It is not life-changing, it'll probably not kickstart a new era in comics, but it is good. So why ask for more? Shellception fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Mar 11, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2018 18:12
|
|