the OFFICIAL comic books discussion thread!!!

[sirgallahad2]

By the way, I finally found the TPB of "The Chroncles of Wormwood". I am a HUGE Garth Ennis fan and I have to say, this is some of his best work yet (I know, I know, Preacher was awesome) Only Garth Ennis can do a story where the Anti-Christ is not only the hero, but the best friend of the re-incarnated Jesus Christ. Danny (Antichrist) and Jay (Jesus) basically told their domineering and over-bearing fathers where to stick it and they just want to live their lives. Be prepared for violence, blasphemy, nudity, drug use, COPIOUS amounts of profanity and one of the more eye-opening views on religion and faith I have ever read.

[TheLuckyOne]

So... yesterday one of the most acclaimed, highly-regarded comics being published today officially came to an end as Y: The Last Man released its final issue. It's been a long, fun, enlightening ride, but now it's finally over. Since I know a few of us are fans, I thought I'd share this short article about the end of Y and Brian K. Vaughan's future plans (including writing for Lost).

Also, while some readers will probably wait for the trade, I wanted to see if anyone else has read the issue yet, and if so, what you thought. [Spoiler-free] I'm... undecided. It's not exactly how I wanted things to end, and in some ways that's a mark of good writing, but of course it's disappointing. Without spoiling things, it's a bittersweet ending (fitting, I suppose, for an issue entitled "Alas"), certainly one with hope and joy, but also emphasizing all that's been lost, not glossing over the hard times. Some of what's occured I was happy about, some I wasn't, but if nothing else it was certainly moving. Maybe someday I'll figure out how I feel about that.

In the meantime, here's the link:

Unmanned

-D

[TheLuckyOne]

I just found out about this today, but comic great Steve Gerber passed away on Monday. In an industry where even the biggest names are virtually unknown in mainstream society, Gerber hadn't been one of the biggest since the 70's, but his influence on the growth and maturity of comics can hardly be overstated. At a time when most of his contemporaries were writing cookie cutter "good guy punches bad guy" superhero yarns, Gerber introduced strong horror and fantasy elements into his books, bringing a strong intellectual vibe to them that challenged readers to think and notice the world around them. His stories gained a reputation for being far more mature and thought provoking than those of his peers; and when he introduced his most famous creation, Howard the Duck (the real one, not the movie version), Gerber found an outlet to explore philosophical issues and the social ills plaguing 70's America through the Duck's biting, satirical wit. In later years, his ownership battles with Marvel Comics helped bring attention to creator rights issues.

I haven't read as much of Gerber's work as I'd like, but what I have is incredibly innovative, intelligent, often extremely funny stuff. I have a feeling he and I wouldn't find much common ground politically, but I have nothing but respect for how he expressed his views. He was one of the greats, and a true "cult" voice in the comic industry, and his passing leaves the medium all the poorer for it.

R.I.P., Mr. Gerber.


-D

[tommutate]

The only comic I'm still interested in at the moment is Concrete. There may be others as good as that one I could get into, but I haven't seen them yet.

[TheLuckyOne]

So I've been watching a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lately. (I know, I know... shut up.) Anyway, last night I saw "The Wish" for the first time. I really enjoyed it, obviously, and at the end [SPOILERS], when Buffy and all of her friends die one after the other, I couldn't help but smile and think to myself, "Wow, it's so cool how much of a fan Joss Whedon obviously is of the X-Men, and how apparent that is in some of these episodes." I mean, the whole episode really wears its inspiration on its sleeve, but especially the end with all the deaths, it's just such a great homage to Days of Future Past, you know? So I read the Wikipedia entry on "The Wish" to see what it had to say, but... no reference to DoFP. And then I read the Television Without Pity recap, but the guy thinks the episode is a takeoff of It's A Wonderful Life and doesn't even mention DoFP. So I started thinking, obviously I'm not the first person to notice the stylistic similarities, and it's not like the X-Men invented alternate realities (much as it may seem that way sometimes), but the influence is pretty unmistakable... I guess I just wondered if DoFP was ever overtly acknowledged as the inspiration for that episode, or if most Buffy fans have both seen the episode and read DoFP. Just curious, if anyone cares to comment.

-D

[orangejesus]

I don't know if Whedon himself has ever acknowledged it, but I have seen reference to such on several different 'Net boards and I know from my fanboy interest in the man and his work that he is a fan of the X-Men and their history. So, very possibly. . .

[TheLuckyOne]

Just thought I'd offer a quick heads up to anyone who might be looking for a new comic to check out: a volume collecting the bulk of Scott McCloud's acclaimed series Zot! has just been released. As I mentioned in an article last year, Zot! is about a girl from our world who gets pulled into a near-utopian dimension of retro sci-fi and befriends its resident superhero, Zot, who battles evil with his inventor uncle, robotic butler, and a jetpack and ray gun. The series was pretty groundbreaking in its day, one of the first to incorporate Japanese manga stylings in American comics, and won quite a few awards.

The first ten issues of Zot! were in color, after which McCloud took a short break and then relaunched the series in black and white, which is where this volume starts collecting. Since it had been on hiatus, issue 11 basically reintroduces all of the characters and themes. As McCloud notes, "the black and white issue #11 was really a full reboot. We would have called it a 'New Number One!' but doing so was annoyingly fashionable in those days."

This collection is long, long overdue, as all of the prior Zot! collections are out of print, and nearly half the issues in this volume have never been collected, ever. Aside from that, Scott McCloud also does kind of a "director's commentary" throughout the volume, adding notes about the progression of the series, how he came up with a certain idea, random trivia, etc. Basically, for $25 you're getting the majority of the run of an extremely good comic and a peek inside the mind that created it. If you're at all interested, I strongly urge you to check out Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection.

-D

[DTH]

Nov 17, 2007 12:15:25 GMT -5 Al said:

For the record, I would go see a Justice League hand puppet movie. Just saying.

Didn't they do that with that pilot that came out?

*listens*

What?

They were actors??

[DTH]

Ok, so Civil War came and went last year and while interesting, it was hardly ground-breaking.

However, there was a lot of buzz around Annihilation which was happening somewhere in the background. I finally got around to checking it out, purely because Nova was a major character.

And Nova's my second favourite character (whoo, New Warriors, whoo!).

What would you know? Annihilation was awesome! And not only that but it launched a new series of Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy (this time with Rocket Raccoon!)!

And having got the first two trades (I only collect TPBs these days), I am happy to report that Marvel has really done an amazing job of reinventing the character.

I mean, right now, I'll only touch New Avengers and I'm wondering whether to bother picking up the third trade of Astonishing X-Men (NOT a fan of Joss Whedon's X-writing) but as far as 616 goes, I am loving me the Nova.

Still picking up Ultimate Spider-man, X-Men and Fantastic Four. USM is very, very good. UXM has its ups and downs. UFF is somewhere between sublime and just very, very dull, depending on the story.

Do NOT talk to me about Ultimates Volume 3.

*cry*

[TheLuckyOne]

I'd imagine this article is probably funniest if you've read some of the stories it talks about (sadly, I have), but I have to think it would still be amusing even if you haven't. If you've ever wondered just how bad Spider-Man stories can get, proceed at your own risk. [Language warning.]

The 12 Dumbest Spider-Man Stories Ever (Besides the Clone Saga)

-D

[DTH]

Gonna take a look at that when I get chance. I'd bet good money either the Walrus or the Frog or the White Rabbit getting mentioned ...

[TheLuckyOne]

Debated putting this in the "Misery is..." thread, but decided it was disrespectful in light of all the actually horrible stuff that's happened to people. However, "Extreme irritation is..."

...having volume 5, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe, come out yesterday and having a client meeting keep you from getting to the store until 4:00, at which point they're sold out. And having the guy behind the counter tell you it'll be three weeks until they can get more in.

No no no no no... Scott Pilgrim waits for no man, random comic shop employee. If you don't have it, someone else does.

-D

[blinkfan]

Brian Azzarello's "Joker" is really really great. The art is stunning and the story as well as going into the psyche, in my opinion, is better than the killing joke.

[TheLuckyOne]

Re: the Joker, it's hard to believe one of comics' greatest villains almost never made it past his second appearance. Bill Finger, Batman's first writer, was not a fan of recurring villains. The Joker appeared in two stories in Batman #1, and the second ended with him accidentally stabbing himself in the chest and bring pronounced dead by Batman and Robin. The comic's editor thought there was too much potential in this villain to waste it, so at the very last minute another panel was added to the end of the story, with an astonished ambulance driver proclaiming, "I just examined this man - he isn't dead! He's still alive - and he's going to live!"

Weird, huh?

-D

[TheLuckyOne]

Wow... big, BIG happenings at SDCC today:

Marvelman rights acquired by Marvel

The irony of this story is that it's easily the biggest comics news of the decade, yet most younger fans (myself included) will never have read a single Marvelman story, may not even have heard the name. But the character is legendary for the stories he was involved in: supposedly it was some of Alan Moore's best work, and Neil Gaiman's as well, yet has been essentially unavailable for decades.

A very, very brief recap for anyone interested: the character of Marvelman was created as an analog for Captain Marvel, who was in turn a ripoff of Superman. Reporter Micky Moran could turn into a Superman-like character by saying the word "Kimota" ("atomic" backwards, phonetically), and starred in a bunch of well-regarded stories in the '50s and '60s. But it was in the '80s that Alan Moore took on the character (now called "Miracleman" to prevent legal action by, ironically, Marvel), leading to what is considered some of his most thought-provoking yet darkest work. After Moore's run finished, Neil Gaiman came on board for what was supposed to be 18 issues, but only 8 were ever published, the story left unfinished by Eclipse Comics going bankrupt. Years later renowned d-bag Todd McFarlane bought Eclipse's characters, mainly for Miracleman, but Neil Gaiman fought him in court because Gaiman supposedly owned part of the character, as did the artists who worked on the series, except Marvelman's original creator claimed it was still his property and... basically it was a huge legal mess for years and years. Miracleman collections became exceedingly rare (look for some on eBay... do it quick, though) and people despaired of them ever being reprinted. And now, finally, the rights issues have been resolved. Hopefully it's only a matter of time before Marvel officially announces reprints of old material and that Gaiman will return to finish the story he started so many years ago.

[For non-comic readers, here's a good analogy: this is like if Stephen King wrote what's considered one of his best books, and then J.K. Rowling wrote half of a sequel starring the same characters, but then wasn't allowed to finish even though she wanted to. Then for two decades, legal issues prevented either book from ever being reprinted- your choices are to pay $500 on eBay for King's book or just go without. And now, finally, you don't have to.]

KIMOTA!

-D