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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 17:18:45 GMT -5
It’s a bit unclear, like weapons in North Korea. Better get used to the idea that they’re there to stay. Or better stay outta the US. I was planning to visit my friend in Florida next summer, but I'm considering buying him the ticket instead. I loved my time in Miami, the Florida comic shops, riding bike in the everglades, slaloming gators, throwing raves on golf courses and rooftops, skinny dipping at the far end of white trash Jimbo's island, jamming with deadheads in weed clouded cellars, "meeting" Miami winter music conferance/spring break "ladies", playing gigs with drag queens and Diplo in backyard home parties in shady neighborhoods, hanging out after hours in the Botanical garden with its director of seeds, meeting Evander Holyfield in a sauna and having Missy Elliott as my friendly neighbor for a week, but... nah, no more... It does not feel worth the risk... If you live there, I guess it's not as dangerous, you know your ways, you know where to go and what to avoid and such, but as a tourist eager for adventure and experiences, I don't know...
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 14:56:05 GMT -5
This may have been covered previously, but what about the current issues of an ongoing title that is over ten years old, if the current issues are stil by the very same original creative team? Should they be tackled in the modern comics section or the classic one?
I would tend to go for te classic one, but I'm sure there's good arguments to the contrary.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 14:52:32 GMT -5
Wait, that hardcore fanbase you're talking about, are you refering to those marvel zombies that were super nervous if not angry when Quesada become EIC and only hired Vertigo writers, and thus saved Marvel by opening up the readership? How have they gotten hold of the house keys yet again?
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 13:06:27 GMT -5
I guess all the writers with new ideas are off doing creator owned properties. Wait : they might make Ed Piskor's series ongoing and give Donny Cates 12 books to write a month
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 12:21:44 GMT -5
My best friend is from Florida, and has three kids all under 7. Both he and his wife are seriously considering moving to Europe, even if they've never lived there. It didn't start today, but, you know...
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 12:19:51 GMT -5
I was very close to add Squirrel Girl as well, which you might very well be the one who convince me to give it a fair go. I must say that the way you talk about X-Men gold though, that doesn't sound like this belongs in htis topic
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 12:16:36 GMT -5
But would you agree that he (Bernthal) mostly negates everyting that made Ennis' Punisher great (Ennis probably almost being the only thing that made Punisher great for most of us)? I mean, If it's going to be the actual punisher, it's probably not gonna work great on TV or movies, especially in the longer format of a series, unless it's a different character, which is the route they took. So appart from all the many other issues with how cheap the series felt, I was let down in my expectations, ones that came directly from the comic book. I obviously watched tis solely because it was called the punisher, and I still hope to one day be surprised by the filmed take one creator migt find, this wasn't it. But I'm good, since I got John Cage, a clever adaptation with what I forgot to mention : a great actor in the lead role.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 12:09:02 GMT -5
As a french man, comics and table top role playing game rule books were my first exposure to the english language apart from the Beatles and Louis Amstrong... I would say that comics influenced my language mostly on the swearing side of things, especially because of 2000 AD and its childish analogues to curse words I still to this day surprise myself using. Reading comic books made me some kind of linguistic boy scout.
As for values, I had already been exposed enough to the likes of Sartre, Voltaire, Hugo, Rousseau and the bible to have a good enough idea of what was an honest man and a hypocrite (or worse), and most of the shdes of grey in between. I would say that a few comics may very well have influenced my morals and inhibitions though, namely the books from Crumb, Spiegleman and Sandman from Gaiman.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 11:48:06 GMT -5
So, finally saw the Punisher series, and I can now weigh on the Marvel Netflix universe
I use the Luke Cage thread since it's better to focus on the love than on the hate. Admitedly, LC was a slow burner, but it had great rewards. The nods to the comic and its history were really smart and well adapted to this TV format. I also enjoyed very much the way the music took stage in it, almost like a reveresed Twin Peaks 2017. The fact that we got several vilains with different agendas instead of one main villain fet truer to comics as well. The fact that the characters had real relationships and sex was also a pleasant surprise. Sure, the ending wasn't an epic bang, but none of these shows feature one. Also, it was the only series of the bunch that felt like it was adequately budgeted.
So I rate the series like this (Iron fist excluded : I didn't watch it since I'm no complete masochist) :
1/ Luke Cage 2/ JJ 3/ DD1 4/ DD2 5/ Punisher 6/ Defenders
JJ was alright, but a tad too long, too emo, and the villain wasn't strong enough to sustain the whole season. I would have liked more of hte comedic parts, though, to balance it out.
DD's first season was alright, but again it took way too long to tell way too little. Some of it felt quite cheap as well. And the actress who plays Karen Page is the most emo I've ever seen : it feels like she's constantly sobbing while talking, insufferable!
DD 2 suffered from a cheap Electra, cheaper ninjas and their abstract stupid plan, and more of Karen Page's irritating actng.
Punisher was IMHO atrocious : At some point he's Steve McQueen (done cheaply), at some point he's in a cheap as hell FPS so badly filmed by a drone that they aknowledges it in the story so that it becomes a directing trick. Karen Page is still horrible, but to add prejudice to injury, she has a disgusting dialogue about weapons and 2nd amendment with a progresisve politician who is portrayed as a hypocrite and coward. Micro was alright, even if he had little to do with his comic incarnation(s), till he became an emo caricature as well. The villain was laughable, Jigsaw was alright till he was revealed to be the other villain 100% in such a hamfisted way, and Frank Castle... Oh my... Where to begin? The actor did everything he could through acting to feel bigger than he actually is, but what a casting fail... At least Thomas Jane had some kind of matching stoïcity, even Ray Stevenson. But Bernthal, he just feels like an angry lost puppy, stuborn and stupid (well, most of his adversaries were stupid and stuborn as well, so that challenge wasn't the most difficult to overcome). The way he cut deals with the authorities was also a big LOL moment, I must say. I could go on, but I feel that my final verdict is that a punisher movie or series shouldn't feature the Punisher as the lead. That's why it could have worked better within DD. I guess that the trailer being so missleading about the tone didn't really help either, but what was I expecting? Ennis's third volume of the series remains one of the highlights of the mainstream 00's, the main reason why the character was back in fashion again (with the first volume, admitedly), this was IMHO not even worthy the Chuck Dixon stories of the 80ies.
Defenders was such an empty vessel that I'm att odds remembering anything specific about it appart from how vain it was.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 11:20:18 GMT -5
Non-American stuff, I have to think hard to bring it back to 10. I'm back into manga and got some of my backlog on European stuff (especially with stuff taking some time to get in translation over here, so titles I'd name could have been out in France or Belgium for months to years now). The Wildstorm is made for me, so I fully get nobody else being interested in it. I think the writing on Seven to Eternity is quite good, especially the worldbuilding, but it needs to move along now and go deeper into the characters if it should be on this list next year. Comics are comics, whether they are from the US, Japan or France, why compartementize? I had a weekly FM radioshow for almost 20 years. It was a music show, and I took wover it after as the third generation host. It started out in the 80ies as a rock/punk rock show. Over time, it grew an interest in electronic music, rap, etc... But it kept genres compartementized. When I was alone in charge, I changed that, mixed everything as much as possible, as i realized that sections of my audience waited for the part that covered the style they were into and left when it was over. As a music lover, that was extremely disheartening, hence the change, and an audience that was at first resistant, but in the end better for it, more open minded a therfore richer. The Wildstorm also seems custom made for me, just not the price point. But don't worry about publication dates of Euro stuff : if you enjoyed it in its anglo saxon edition and it's more or less 5 years old, by all means share
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 10:58:25 GMT -5
I liked the opening scene, I like the virtual wife, and I thought everything else was almost laughable (I adore Incendies, Enemy, Arrival...). The geography of this world made no sense to me, so the whole plot advanced very akwardly IMHO, huge disappointment
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 10:53:55 GMT -5
I'm not that excited at all by the prospect of comic book movie adaptations, I'm happy with the original material and its narrative specificities (I wish I had been spared From Hell, Watchmen, and almost all Marvel flicks...) But... Spielberg proved with Tintin that this can be done in a fashion that makes me forget of the original material. So I'd really like more of this.
I'd very much enjoy as well something trying his luck at an Angry Yoth Comix adaptation, or a live Den movie staring Magic Mike or whatever he is called...
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 10:42:50 GMT -5
I've just read The Walking Dead #169-175, and I must say it's IMHO the most enjoyable the series has been in years. You can see big but gradual changes coming, and the perspectve of having actual surviving celebrities take part in the action is a wellcome trick.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 9:50:47 GMT -5
Doom Patrol (DC comics) Flintstones (DC comics) Descender (Image Comics) Black Monday Murders (Image Comics) Moon Knight (Marvel Comics) Seven to Eternity (Image Comics) I really enjoyed most of those. Most were real close to my top 15 (Doom Patrol because of the James Harvey back-up, Flinstones and Black Monday Murders (gorgeous!)). Seven To Eternity is pure eye candy, but I thought the story wasn't anything special, PC Heavy Metal stuff. I wanted to try The Wildstorm but passed, in fear of traditionnal Ellis decompression, and price point (I don't think it's fair for DC or Marvel to charge $4 for 20 pages). I will probably get it though, cheap on an ebay auction or something.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Feb 15, 2018 9:41:45 GMT -5
Spectacular year as far as I'm concerned. Here's my top 5, plus 10, in order : - Sticks Angelica Folk Hero from Michael DeForge - Mouth Baby from James Harvey - Ralph Azham vol.10 from Trondheim - Happiness vol.1 from Shūzō Oshimi - Spy Seal from Rich Tommaso - My Favorite Thing Is Monsters from Emil Ferris - Shadows on the Grave from Corben - Lazarus de Greg Rucka - Love and Rocket vol. 4 - Cinema Purgatorio from Alan Moore and co - Providence from Alan Moore (only ine issue in 2017, but I waited for it to read it all) - Kaijumax from Zander Cannon - Kill Or Be Killed from Bru & Sean Philips - Paper Girls from Vaughn & Chiang - Mister Miracle from Tom King
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