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Comic Book Thread


kirkt

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I know there's a few fair few people on here that read comics, but hardly any discussion which is odd. Which comics are people currently reading? I'm always wanting to read more tho it can be a pricy pastime and as much as I try to keep an interest in the DC/Marvel universes its hard to keep up with the continuity of them. I'm really enjoying The Boys right now, not the deepest of titles but consistently funny and un-pc! Been meaning to check out Y: The Last Man for some time now and Gerard Way's (as much as I dislike the man) Umbrella Academy.

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I finally read the last part of Zenith, the old 2000AD strip. That's a goody, if you can find it. Didn't like how they started colouring it though, it's way better in B&W.

I've got it - it's awesome. Decent early-ish Grant Morrison. Morrison's (and Frank Quietly's)take on Superman - All-Star Superman - is well worth checking out for a inventive take on the iconic character. Anyone read WE:3? wasthinking about picking it up.

100 Bullets starts really good but gets a bit oblique I found, Brain Azzarello's run on Hellblazer a few years ago was AWESOME. 'Hard Times' I bewlieve it was called.

Preacher is the best thing I've ever read, comic or not. Preacher fans should definitely check out Ennis' run on Punisher ('Welcome back Frank'), The Boys and his run on Authority ('Kev', 'The Magnicient Kevin' and 'The Man Called Kev') - fucking hilarious.

Only read the first few Y:The Last Man, pretty impressed so far, Brian K Vaughn looks like he's gonna go far. Ex-Machina was ace too.

I'd recommend anything by Mark Millar (check out Kick Ass, it's exactly that, but quite hard to get a hold of), he's a young-ish Scottish guy that also wrote Wanted and did a bit of script work for Iron Man, and Marvels' big Civeil War cross-over last year.

Obviously anything by Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore etc is worth a pop.

The comic section in the central library is worth a look.

My Standing order at Forbidden Planet stands at:

Astonishing X-men

Uncanny X-men

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: Manifest Destiny

X-Force - FUCKING AWESOME! Claw-Squad!

The Life & Times of Lucas Bishop

The Boys

Herogasm

Deadpool

Deadpool: Suicide Kings

Thunderbolts (A lot of the current Dark Reign stuff really...)

Cable

Wolverine: Origins

Wolverine: Weapon X

Wolverine: Old Man Logan

Wolverine: First Class

Any Wolvie one-shot

Dark Reign: Hawkeye

Kick Ass

Star Wars: Legacy

Star Wars: Clone Wars

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Dark Times

Pet Avengers

All the new Battlestar Galactica books

Hellblazer

There's more that I can't remember. I spend about 150 a month on comics. Thank god I have an understanding girlfriend....

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I know there's a few fair few people on here that read comics, but hardly any discussion which is odd. .

I've tried dude, I've tried!

I try to keep an interest in the DC/Marvel universes its hard to keep up with the continuity of them.

Tell me about it...try following the X-men books for 22 years....

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I've got the first volume of All Star Superman, it gets off to a slow start but after that it's excellent. I love how Clark Kent-like, Clark is (if that makes sense). I picked up the first two issues of All Star Batman and Robin too but was a bit unsure of Batman's charachter in it ("What are you? Retarded? I'm the freakin' Batman"). I know Miller can do better.

Kick-Ass is good though I get the feeling Millar is more interested in the film that the comic now what with only getting one issue out every four months.

I tried following Ultimate X-Men as I love X-Men and thought it would be easy, being in it's own continuity. It's quite good but a bit too modernised/teenager-ish. Any other X-Men titles you can get where you don't need to know about all the other spin-offs? I've heard good things about Astonishing X-Men

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Kick-Ass is good though I get the feeling Millar is more interested in the film that the comic now what with only getting one issue out every four months.

I tried following Ultimate X-Men as I love X-Men and thought it would be easy, being in it's own continuity. It's quite good but a bit too modernised/teenager-ish. Any other X-Men titles you can get where you don't need to know about all the other spin-offs? I've heard good things about Astonishing X-Men

'Astonishing...' has pretty good since I've been getting it, predominantly because it's Warren Ellis, the Ghost Box storyline was awesome, quite affecting, for a spandex-type book. 'Uncanny...' is actually pretty good too now, since they re-booted post-Manifest Destiny and moved the team to San Fransisco, it's in danger of becoming a showcase for tits and ass again though, Emma Frost is too over-used. They should have more Namor in the X-books too, he is meant to be the first mutant after all. Namor is ace.

I really can't recommend X-Force enough, the art is breath-taking:

xforce002.jpg

I really like Kick Ass, the only thing that bugs me is the art (and the fact it's taken a back seat to Millar's movie career), John Romita is soooo over-rated. The Wolverine: Enemy of the State stuff was decent, but Millar's writing really carries Romita's piss-poor effort.

I think the Ultimate line is about to get canned, incidentally. Didn't read any of the Ultimate X-Men stuff, but Ultimate Spiderman was appalling. I didn't think that it was possible for MJ to get anymore annoying, but it is....at least Peter Parker got to ball Kitty Pryde...

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Battlestar Galactica BOOKS!?, I'm afraid that, for all my love of the series, that is a thing that should not be. SF film/TV book adaptations are what makes me ashamed to browse SF sections, that and 10 part guff Fantasy novels, Gah.

Get some Neal Stephenson and Ken Macleod, thats my prescription for a healthy SF diet. Alternatively say "Fuck off, ya Sci Fi snob Bassa.

Em, on topic, I enjoyed 'Maus', but really prefer Freak (Frak?) Brothers, and Russell. Adventures of an Ordinary Man

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Battlestar Galactica BOOKS!?, I'm afraid that, for all my love of the series, that is a thing that should not be

Just to clarify, I meant comic books. They veer wildly from being utterly brilliant (BSG: Cylon War, BSG Origins: Baltar) to being fucking awful (BSG Origins: William Adama, BSG: Ghosts). The are in cannon and fill some gaps spectacularly, especially the Baltar origins stuff, which ties in very closely with the latter episodes of the last season. The artwork lets them down quite alot, no one seems to be able to draw Old Man Adama or Starbuck and actually make them LOOK like Katie Sackhoff or EJO.

Avoid the Origins: Adama run, it's pish. Admiral Cain's ma was his CAG apparently. Horrible.

The Zarek series was awesome though....

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Fair enough, its the novelisations that scare me, I read 'Han Solo at Stars End' aged 9, and even then I wondered how such a cool film could birth such a poorly written, badly plotted piece of hackery. And that was in the Golden Age, I fear to think what the prequel inspired books must be like, more proof of the absence of divine intelligence probably.

I got the Star Wars comics in the 70s, but ended up preferring the Micronaughts, which was in it.

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Next installment of Alan Moore's superb League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen series is out in ten days, I believe. Despite my initial apprehension, the last one (Black Dossier) was amazing once I got into it, being a somewhat different format from the first two. It was originally unavailable in the UK due to copyright issues, but I managed to lay my hands on a US edition.

Recently, I've also been reading All-Star Superman and it is indeed extremely good. Grant Morrison seems to be one of the few people who have figured out how to write Superman well, but then he is one of the best writers out there. His magnum opus, The Invisibles, is IMO one of the finest works of fiction ever created....in any medium. Although it did take me a few readings before I began to fully appreciate its depth.

Got Scarlet Traces to read next, which is Edginton & D'israeli's sequel to War Of The Worlds. Based on their previous work, like Kingdom Of The Wicked and Stickleback, it should be a corker!

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With regard to Mark Millar, I think he's got some very good ideas and I generally enjoy his writing - but he can never finish anything! Everything I've read of his (with the exception of Wanted) has ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

The Ultimates - botched what was a very promising build-up to a climatic confrontation.

Civil War - completely fizzled out, thereby souring the only storyline that has ever made me like Captain America as a character.

Red Son - ended with a totally unnecessary twist.

Having said that, I've yet to read Kick-Ass, so he may manage to bring that to a satisfying conclusion.

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I've read the Preacher books several times, amazing.

I ploughed through The Invisibles set again as well, much better when you have the whole collection to read in one marathon attempt.

From Hell I think is the best graphic novel I have ever read, so much going on in it. If you've only ever seen the film, please read it....

I have a fair heap of Punisher graphic novels that I want shot of if anyone is interested, get in touch and we can haggle - same goes for loads of comics I found in my attic when I moved house - something like the first 25 issues of Punisher War Zone, various sets of Terminator, Aliens and Predator comic sets, all complete sets.

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Recently, I've also been reading All-Star Superman and it is indeed extremely good. Grant Morrison seems to be one of the few people who have figured out how to write Superman well, but then he is one of the best writers out there. His magnum opus, The Invisibles, is IMO one of the finest works of fiction ever created....in any medium. Although it did take me a few readings before I began to fully appreciate its depth.

Got Scarlet Traces to read next, which is Edginton & D'israeli's sequel to War Of The Worlds. Based on their previous work, like Kingdom Of The Wicked and Stickleback, it should be a corker!

Invisibles is pretty good - spot on about Morrison and Superman too. I got quite excited by the propect of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee taking on the character in Supman for Tommorow, but it was SHITE! Spotted Scarlet Traces in the Library and was going to give it a go, D'israeli's ace, gotta sketch of the Joker he did for me at a signing somewhere...

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I have a fair heap of Punisher graphic novels that I want shot of if anyone is interested, get in touch and we can haggle - same goes for loads of comics I found in my attic when I moved house - something like the first 25 issues of Punisher War Zone, various sets of Terminator, Aliens and Predator comic sets, all complete sets.

Can you PM me specifics, (issue nos ect) please?

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Civil War - completely fizzled out, thereby souring the only storyline that has ever made me like Captain America as a character.

I dunno, as with any massive cross-over it was diluted in the hands of other writers, but Millar's 'core' series was awesome, and did make Cap cool again. I'll admit to two totally spine-quivering moments:

"My name is Peter Parker and I've been Spider-Man since I was 16"

and

When Namor shows up and saves their asses. Awesome.

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I really need to read the Invislbles I think. I love pretty much everything Grant Morrison has done. His JLA run in the late 90s was brilliant.

I do like Mark Millar although I get the feeling he thinks he's better than he actually is.

I noticed in Plan 9 window today that they have re-issued Preacher (issue 1 at least) for like 99p or something if anyone is wanting to try before they before they get the graphic novels etc...

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Picked up a new X-Men one-shot that's worth a pop - X-Men: Sword of the Braddocks. Focusses on Psylocke and ties in nicely with Revanche/Kwannon/Psylocke's return to Uncanny X-Men. Awesome art-work and a story by manga-genius Adam Warren.

Hmmmm...sexy ninjas....

JAN092553-02.jpg

X-MEN: SWORD OF THE BRADDOCKS #1 - Marvel Comics Catalog: The Official Site - Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, X-Men, Wolverine and all Marvel Comics and Graphic Novels | Marvel Comics Catalog | Marvel.com

New Boys and Messiah War stuff out this week too, much excitement.

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