Them thingies with words and pictures

I seriously need to re-read sandman.

anyone read Asterios Polyp yet? it's amazing.

I haven't, but I want to.

I just bought volumes 2, 3, and 5 of Preacher. I'd already read them, but only at the bookstore. I think Volume 2 might be one of the most fucked up (non-pornographic) comics I've ever read.

edited 8th Apr '11 10:08:40 PM by LolipodDistortion

The best I've read recently is Jamie Tanner's The Aviary. Entirely about sexuality on the surface, but in the best way possible: sort of a psychological thriller in cartoons. A penguin who photographs crime scenes and does horrible things just off panel?

Cryptic as hell. Disturbing as hell. (And darkly funny when it's not being entirely disturbing.)

Oh yes! I felt like I was missing a lot of it because I read it quickly, but yes, really good.

I want to recommend Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve if fiction-biography comics are the sort of thing you're into.

edited 9th Apr '11 12:12:39 AM by newtonthenewt

I still like Garfield. Unironically.

Another McCloud fan here. My first exposure to the dude was in a "how to draw comics" book where he espoused comic theory, and I was a little intrigued, but then I read Understanding Comics and got to the part where he talked about "The Treachery of Images◊" and the various layers of unreality in images. I was fifteen and it blew. My. Mind.

Anyway. Any fans of old-timey comics, like Little Nemo or Krazy Kat? Those might be two of my favourite strips— Nemo can get hard to read sometimes, but it's so surrealist and lovely and detailed I can't help but love it. Krazy Kat is just so off-kilter it's fascinating— the world is bizarre, the characters are bizarre, the stories are bizarre, the dialogue is bizarre— and it all comes together in this weird, wonky strip. I wish I were half as creative as Herriman.

"Do you hear what I'm saying? If you do, you should get your ears checked, because I haven't said a word."

I doubled over laughing at that part.

Count me in as a fan of Little Nemo- surreal and wonderfully detailed, indeed. Only reason I haven't read the giant edition I picked up over and over and over is that the bugger is so bloody huge that it actually hurts my wrists >.<

The only comics that I've been keeping up with lately have been Usagi Yojimbo and Groo The Wanderer- Groo almost more out of nostalgia than anything else, sadly- I haven't liked the last few stories/arcs very much. Kind of a pity- I've always liked Mark Evanier's writing, and Sergio Aragones is one hell of an artist.

Usagi Yojimbo, on the other hand... beautiful, beautiful stuff. Stan Sakai always does his homework to a borderline frightening degree, his linework is something I can unabashedly call 'elegant', and his characters are fascinating. I didn't get into it until 2005 when I went to the San Diego Comiccon, because both the early issues and the first trades were annoyingly difficult to get ahold of. Met Stan very briefly there- really nice guy- and grabbed the first ten or so from his table, and... yeah, completely hooked ever since

The other comics I've been digging into recently have been some of the classic Jack Kirby stuff. Wow. The title of 'King' may originally have been marketing fluff/a Running Gag, but... yeah, wow. The art might be a little crude by modern standards, but the sheer, raw energy of it is incredible.

Random aside to those who are also fans of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics- dig up copies of Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. Fascinating stuff.

Have to give a shout to Master of Kung Fu. Apparently you can't get it in reprints, which is a shame. I guess it's because Moench left Marvel under something of a cloud.

When I had to Sell the Collection, I kept 3 titles: MOKF, Cerebus, and Micronauts (another title without reprints, copyright trouble don't you know).

I also have to say something about Walt Kelly. His stuff is still fresh and funny as hell. My copies of his books are all broken and decrepit and I love them.

Transmetropolitan and the way it ended was perhaps one of the most awesome things that ever happened ever.

I felt Preacher started strong, built up well but eventually suffered towards the end, but I have issues with just how craptastic everything was at all times during the series.

<facepalm> Forgot all about ol' Walt. My copy of Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo is yellowed but still in one piece.

Mine is missing its covers and had coffee spilled on it at one point. I need another copy. Preferably laminated. And spiral bound.

I always thought people overrated Preacher's Crapsack World. I mean, there's crap there, yes, but the fact that every character manages a happy ending except the villains (Including the antiheros) should say something.

Sure, there is lots of shit and crap in the world, but Jesse and Tulip met a lot of nice people along the way. The villains always held positions of power, yes, but overtime...well, they were all brought down by the people who put them there.

It's very ideallistic in its cynicism, I'd say.

For me there was too much piling up of the utterly absurd.

The Grail always seemed a tad unlikely in scope and unnecessarily dickish; the cannibals that seemed to be hanging out in the middle of absolutely no-where were a bit of a stretch; some of Odin’s actions are downright cartoon super-villainy.

Granted, this is a comic. One in which a Demon and Angel get hot and heavy together, vampires roam the world, etc… But somehow the thing came off as a very unlikely version of the real world. I guess it sort of fell into the Uncanny Valley of comic book settings for me.

Oh, OK. That makes more sense. I do agree the comic could get really absurd.

I like my comics weird. Which reminds me of Art Speilgman. Which reminds me that this copy of Maus has been sitting by my bed for almost a year and I still haven't read it.

edited 27th Apr '11 11:09:25 PM by LolipodDistortion

I don't even have to explain how imperative it is that you read that comic, right?

Maus is amazing. I read it at the same time I read Promethea and it made a weird taste in my brain.

We have testing tommorrow, which means three hours of sitting around doing nothing, so that'll be a a good time to read it.

Anybody read Batman Long Halloween? Not sure how old t is, but it is pretty good. I enjoyed it, especially the twists, and the plot that kept you guessing.

It's from 199...something. I think.

Anyway, that's probably one of those comics I'm way too ambivalent about. Personally, I kinda liked it, but I wish Loeb didn't write based only in references. It kinda gets annoying.