bran
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Post by bran on Nov 22, 2020 1:16:41 GMT -5
Le peuple du cercle noir (The People of the Black Circle) ... Case in point, the opening sequence here is a battle scene that is not included in the original yarn. I suppose it is meant to establish Conan as a powerful warrior, and to provide information about a later plot point; but both are superfluous, since Conan will be established as a powerful warrior later on (and how!), and the later plot point does not need to be introduced early. Why the scene is detrimental is that it puts Conan right in the centre of things (once again), making his world look that much smaller. Absolutely. Following the story from tight 3rd person perspective (and sometimes 1st person) from several characters, is one of REH's masterstrokes. [Andrzej Sapkowski (Witcher) and George Martin (Game of Thrones) are using the same technique in their novels big time.] You don't have to follow Conan in every-single-frame. Pastiche writers just can not shake it. Added battle from the beginning must have been exhausted, and it appears that Conan goes on, climbs high walls, fights city guards and Yasmina's body guards, right after it! Granted, we can rationalize that there are days that passed by, but it just comes out that way when you read. Completely unnecessary addition. Anyway, I love how Conan constantly short-circuits "the protocol". When he is a king, he goes out of his way to do things that give headache to his security and the generals, in Black Colossus he is a general but leads the army like a king (and pisses off some of the other generals in the process), and here in The People of the Black Circle he goes on and kidnaps important political figure -- in person (that of course spawns butterfly effect and additionally complicates already complicated geo-political situation; to the point that you can barely follow; he will use that situation to his advantage later on in the story).
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bran
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Post by bran on Nov 19, 2020 6:09:17 GMT -5
The odd thing about Conan "property" is that, due strange circumstances (weird attempts to present his work as part of other novels, pastiches, Marvel and Dark Horse adaptations and new stories, and now a public domain) - it became a mythology.
While Tolkien for example wanted to create the mythology (and by raw content - he did, LOR/Hobbit is very mythology-alike), but due to very protective stance of his estate - the only thing in print are the original books (and close adaptations, when it comes to other media) - it really does not live like a mythology. Mythology (as opposed to, say, creator-owner work) is living and breathing thing. Personally I think that's the right stance (not to allow any deviation from the original) in 99.9% cases -- unless the author explicitly wanted to create the mythology. Strangest thing. Myself, I am not a big fan of mythologies (way too much crappy work you have to weed out), adaptations are usually fine. Now, A Witch Shell be Born (Glenat adaptation) was originally solicited for 2021, if I am not mistaken. I've got the original book (it's one of his best) and Marvel and DH adaptations, and I can't wait for the 3rd one. It'll be fun to compare 3 adaptations, against each other, and with the original in this thread.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jul 31, 2019 11:10:30 GMT -5
No! We already have Disney Marvel version. The same thing, even solicitation is similar: By any religious entity! ... Conan is soft-rebooted - super-safe, censored and with political agenda. Now civilized, enlightened, socially conscious, and almost gender-neutral...
Seriously this is great news. Looking forward (will be buying all of it).
Ablaze, they should do Bouncer. It's a damn good western. (And the western like you haven's seen before, they already named a genre after it - Jungian Western lol).
While I'm excited to get these new books as I've loved the reviews of them by Roquefort Raider the Marvel books don't fit the description you gave at all. I'll be the first to say I'm not super impressed by the new Marvel stories but censored, civilized and gender neutral? Definitely not.
That's (supposed to be) humor, it's slightly exaggerated so you get the idea where they are going with it, rest assured.
It's actually worse than gender-neutral (verbally of course, not physically), it's almost person-neutral - these few side characters that do exist, they all talk with the same voice. Is any one of them memorable to you? Hey look, if you like it - good for you. I expected more from Marvel in year 2019. Hyborian world provides such a great backdrop for complex arcs and nuanced characters.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jul 31, 2019 1:02:30 GMT -5
New Publisher Ablaze bringing Glenat Conan comics to US in English translation, the catch, they will not be called Conan, but the Cimmerian. Story hereThey will be available in October. here's the solicit: CIMMERIAN QUEEN OF BLACK COAST #1 (W) Jean-David Morvan (A) Pierre Alary AUG191435 – (CA) Jason Metcalf AUG191436 – (CA) Mirka Andolfo AUG191437 – (CA) Ed Benes AUG191438 – (CA) Pierre Alary By Crom! For the first time, Robert E. Howard’s Conan is brought to life uncensored! Discover the true Conan, unrestrained, violent, and sexual. Read the story as he intended! Pursued for killing a judge, Conan finds refuge on a merchant ship. But soon after setting sail, the Cimmerian and his new companions face a threat: the legendary Bêlit, self-proclaimed Queen of the Black Coast! Bonus Material: The original Robert E. Howard short story is included! In Shops: Oct 09, 2019
No! We already have Disney Marvel version. The same thing, even solicitation is similar: By any religious entity! ... Conan is soft-rebooted - super-safe, censored and with political agenda. Now civilized, enlightened, socially conscious, and almost gender-neutral...
Seriously this is great news. Looking forward (will be buying all of it).
Ablaze, they should do Bouncer. It's a damn good western. (And the western like you haven's seen before, they already named a genre after it - Jungian Western lol).
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 12, 2019 6:57:30 GMT -5
Polar started as web comic (now it's available in paper/digital). It's more James Bond than modern-day/cinematic James Bond, and art-style is sort of a cross in between Darwyn Cooke and Frank Miller.
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bran
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Post by bran on May 23, 2019 13:42:20 GMT -5
Re-read/caught up with Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan's Saga this weekend, reading all 9 trades (covering 54 issues). This series started in 2012 just as I was getting back into new comics after a hiatus, and I was buying it as singles for the first 18 issues (3 trades), but ended up selling off the singles at a great price and switching to trades after those first three volumes were out. I had previously read up through Vol. 5, so the reread was those five volumes, and volumes 6-9 were first time reads. I had been missing volume 8, but recently picked it up form Amazon, triggering my desire to catch up on the series (which is currently in a year plus long hiatus itself). It ended with quite a game changer for the story, and racked up a George R.R. Martin-like body count among supporting characters, antagonists, and protagonists. It was an engrossing read, and I was sucked in, reading a couple of volumes in one sitting (which is rare for me), and each time I finished one, I wanted to find out what happened next, so would pick the next up immediately. It's going to be a long wait until the series starts up again and finishes an arc to be collected as volume 10 though. -M
It's incredibly well mounted story.. saga. Can't wait to see in which direction it's gonna go, and there are plenty of options - political (Perhaps not, initially there were two overly zealous persecutors, one led by sheer ambition and the other one, Gwendoline, by personal vendetta. Gwendoline is out of the picture now.), ongoing war (which served mostly as a backdrop so far), adventure, human interest, all of the above. We know Hazel won't play any significant role in global events - she won't end the war, save the World(s), etc.
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bran
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Post by bran on May 8, 2019 18:46:30 GMT -5
In adaptations Roy did excellent job almost always. When it comes to the original stories, they are not great, maybe even not very good. Linear narrative, the villains are extremely negative, and they always expose their plans in advance, resolutions rushed, and so forth. However Roy's bad stories I never found repulsive, he understands the Universe where it takes place, and the characters. The same applies for the Road of Kings. 11th story however, which is sort of a filler, a bridge in between 2 arcs, is great. Cimmerian in Argos, there are no villains, no magic, just Conan doing re-supply in Argos. I think more he gravitates towards 'mundane' he does better.
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bran
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Post by bran on Apr 26, 2019 1:50:07 GMT -5
Here are couple of comments on Platoon.
Platoon is a nice closure to this series, or Vietnam chapters at least (I think Garth said in an interview he may do one more). It's not a major entry, doesn't add much to the series, but it doesn't take anything away from it either. Juxtaposition of Frank's first tour of duty and veterans in modern day environment, using the cell phones and all, is a hint of optimism at the end.
For some weird reason, we the readers need, no - we are needy beyond belief, to buy the exact same story over and over and over again, to death. Like some affirmative chant. Fortunately, Ennis, like many other A-list writers, is bored with telling the same story twice and doesn't shy away to say no. This story is over - The end, fin, das ende. Anyone who likes his stuff I recommend highly underrated SF mini-series - Caliban, or some of the War Stories he did for Avatar.
Come think of it, this entire series is probably him avoiding to do Marvel Knight's run twice (and at the same time not to turn off to gig).
Now, since these 2 runs are atop of the list, of the most popular Punisher comics of all times, this is what I would do if I were a publisher: - One trade per story arc (exactly as listed in this thread), much better than individual issues or omnibus bundles. - Commission Darick Robertson for brand new trade covers (toss away semi-generic Photoshop job; Born and The End are fine). - Sort one-shots chronologically, so saga starts with Born or Tyger and ends with The End. There you go, now it's perfect :-)
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bran
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Post by bran on Apr 14, 2019 3:04:57 GMT -5
Because I just read 4,000-some-odd pages of 20th Century Boys over 24 volumes in three days, and Oh! My! God! you guys, it was the best comic I've read... well, at least this year. Basically, it's about a group of kids in the late '60s through early '70s who come up with a plan to destroy the world - which one of them starts to actually implement 40 years later. The whole thing is just an incredible tapestry of effective plotting, jumping back and fourth between multiple time periods (and a virtual reality world) covering TWO almost-apocalypses... and it's never not-exciting. (And addictive!) It dabbles in thriller, mystery (which of the childhood pals is "THE FRIEND" the masked, messianic figure who;s out destroy the world) comedy, musical narrative and... uh.. bowling. There's lots of bowling. And there's a fair amount of actual content there, as well - There's some smart thinking about how childhood imprinting defines us as adults, and how the smallest of decisions can have far-reaching consequences. Just really great stuff. I'm kinda freaked out by how good the plotting in Manga can be, and I wonder why American comics can't do that.
Great stuff indeed, but they can. Y-Last Man and Ex-Machina are manga in everything but the name. Form is exactly the same - Limited big fat series that often have slower pacing/buildup, include sub-text alongside the face value of action/adventure/crime/sf, some great art, and all that executed by the original creators. Now western manga do tend to include guest artists, probably due to daunting amount of work required (and low initial payoff).
In Y-Last Man our hero Yorick finds himself in a World where all the men are dead. So there is adventure but it's also his personal journey to becoming a man (so he can die like everyone else LOL). Along the way he interacts with bunch of women and travels a lot. Ex-Machina explores popular culture and superhero variety in particular (and includes every single trope you can think of - origin story, side-kick, costume and weapon of choice, police commissioner, super-villains, arch-enemy... you name it, it's there).
Now I like BKV's stuff so I'm bringing these examples but there are quite a few others.
Speaking of manga I just finished epic Death Note, it's 10/10 alright. I found this on youtube, gives you face-value basics (and believe me there is more, much more), and it does not spoil:
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bran
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Post by bran on Apr 10, 2019 0:48:27 GMT -5
Can anyone recommend a good horror manga? Preferably something that isn't 300+ chapters.
There is Museum of Terror anthology, a collection of shorter standalone stories by Junji Ito (~30-70 pages per story).
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bran
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Post by bran on Apr 8, 2019 17:13:36 GMT -5
Here is the mini-review for The Walking Dead 190 When this (Commonwealth) story arc begun, it looked as if Kirkman's perhaps having a fatigue with the series. It doesn't look that way now. He realized he doesn't have to kill great characters that he created, when their stories are told (finished). If the death does not serve some narrative purpose just let them run out of scope, live their lives off the page (and allow readership's imagination to do the rest). Two years from now he may have a great idea for some of them, or particular character can make a cameo appearance, just for the fun of it. As for the rest, it's up to readership to picture what they are doing. Hermann is having a great time with that in his Jeremiah series. We had a chance to meet Julio and Romea again, Stonebridge of course, and several others. Can you imagine organs market, human trafficking, slavery, in post-apocalyptic society? Now that's creepy - zombies, mutants.. they are not even close. Human is a king of depravity. That leads us to another thing that Kirkman is unpacking here: It's now established - Commonwealth is a new normal. As far as how towns/communities look like - visually. Real differences are in how people are organized (is it autocracy, meritocracy, semi-anarchy, elitist semi-socialism type of thing, mixture of all of the above or whatever else), and in characters in charge - rather than the 'furniture'. In other words there are no TV-gimmicks such pantomime junk-yard people, aqua-people or what have you. Way more interesting direction. Third thing - Rick is no longer in epicenter of everything. He no longer has control (or full knowledge) of everything that's going on. (Have to bring Jeremiah again, it's perfect in that regard - The main characters there are more like very prominent side characters. Their efforts however, often are a key, or extra push to some final outcome). We'll see how it stands with the readers, AFAIC 10/10 for this one.
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bran
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Post by bran on Apr 5, 2019 0:55:34 GMT -5
Now this is a good week: We got Curse Words special (prequels continue; Margaret was a beautiful, normal human baby...), Walking Dead 190 (with pretty good resolution of story arc that looks better in hindsight) and new Paper Girls.
EDIT: Also the final issue of William Gibson's Alien 3 (DH)
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bran
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Post by bran on Mar 19, 2019 5:20:18 GMT -5
You are saying the map in the room is not technically correct right? In Phoenix Conan is saying he knows the northern lands better than shown on a map, but here the context is completely different, and they are not in the north. No, I’m saying that the map in the room is too perfect; it’s the same that is shown on the frontispiece of the book. It shows an accuracy that is incompatible with the development level of the Hyborian age, during which even neighbouring countries can be viewed as half-mythical. The map should be more and more imprecise the further away from Khoraja it is. That was a frequent problem with Marvel’s Conan too, whenever Roy Thomas was not the writer. All of a sudden people in Vendhya or wherever could recognize a Cimmerian on sight, even though they should nnot even have neard of the place. (Thomas had it right, though... to Turanians, Conan was not a Cimmerian; either he was just a westerner, or he was “one of those barbarians from places like whatayacall... Hyperborea lr somethin’ “. That was more realistic).
Right! It is. That map should be less global, more detailed regarding the terrain relevant for the battles (zoomed in).
Marvel King Conan now sneaks up at night, puts on a mask and acts as righteous avenger. Eeer... (it contradicts everything Conan ever was as a character..)
You think they are conscious about it? Or just editorial directives - they are trying to shoehorn Conan into superhero mentality if not literally the Marvel-universe.
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bran
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Post by bran on Mar 18, 2019 22:22:06 GMT -5
You are saying the map in the room is not technically correct right?
In Phoenix Conan is saying he knows the northern lands better than shown on a map, but here the context is completely different, and they are not in the north.
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bran
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Post by bran on Mar 18, 2019 17:30:30 GMT -5
As we wait for the Marvel books, here's something about Glénat's new Conan series. The idea behind the series is that each book will feature a single Howard adaptation, by one team of creators each time, and hopefully providing a unique vision. I just got Black Colossus, adapted by Vincent Brugeas and drawn by Ronan Toulhoat. Loved this one from start to end. It has a perfect pacing, great art, everything fleshed-out right.
The scene that explains Yasmela's risky decision is redundant, they could left it out.
Princess Yasmela is not too happy with her generals. They are not bad generals but there is vanity, elitism and competition among them (some things never change, right?). So she decides to take risky move and find mid-level officer (say captain or major) and put him at the helm of her entire army (and it's a big f**in army). By chance she runs into Conan and so our story goes.
The scene in the 'situation room' where Conan is laying down the strategy in front of the big map is pure gold. As events are developing, Conan is affirming her decision more and more, and we root for them, it gets us (readers) involved. (On top of it there is a chemistry in between the two, and it shows on a page.)
The artist draws Hyborian age perfectly. People, clothes, scenery, architecture, weaponry.. nailed to perfection.
It's a firework of different perspectives and closeups, here are few bits:
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