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Post by TEALProductions on Jan 25, 2022 16:38:45 GMT -5
I'm looking forward to digging into the Shi omnibus I got last week and today I got Veil Walker 1.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 2, 2022 7:12:19 GMT -5
A friend lent me his copy of the graphic novel The Hunting Accident, by Carlson and Blair (I count it as "modern" since it's not quite ten years old yet).
Really lovely book, in which the creators didn't cut any corners -it's more than 400 pages of dense and beautiful black and white art (mostly black).
It really all that an adult OGN should be.
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 4, 2022 20:07:29 GMT -5
Moon Knight (2021) #1-#2
This is some good stuff right here. Having lost touch with Konoshu, Marc has opened his "Midnight Mission" in an effort to protect people from the more unsavory characters that haunt the Marvelverse
What's funny is that practically every Moon Knight run since Ellis came on board has been great and I hope it continues
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Post by arfetto on Feb 6, 2022 18:22:44 GMT -5
Today I read The R.I.G.H.T. Project Issue 1 (well, a pdf of it, as it was a crowdfunded comic and they sent the pdfs before the physical copies which I am still waiting on), written by Tom DeFalco with art by Ron Frenz and inks by Sal Buscema. This is a group of creators I really enjoy, so I was happy to finally receive this interesting piece of minor comics history. What do I mean by this exactly? Well, I have put this in the modern comics release section, but it could probably go in the classic comics section as well because these stories, as far as I know, are from 2001.
In 2001, Tom DeFalco and Ron Lim released a comic under Image called Randy O'Donnell Is The M@n. This was a "kid playing video games is transported into the fantasy game as the legendary hero" kind of story.
(sorry for the glare on these photos)
It only ran for three issues, and I don't know why it stopped publication (though the third issue was released in September of 2001, I wonder if that has anything to do with it or not...maybe someone here knows). A 4th issue was planned according to the "next issue" box in issue 3. It was a breezy, entertaining comic, maybe not very original, but very DeFalcoian haha. It didn't light the world on fire or anything obviously, I'm not sure if people even knew it existed much. But for me it is solid, if slight (and corny), fun. I think Lim's artwork on this title was quite good for the tone of the story, he was doing pretty energetic stuff here.
In issue 2 and 3, DeFalco gave comic book writing tips, which I felt were quite useful to me in my own comic writing attempts haha.
Anyway, issue 1 of Randy O'Donnell was also a flip-book with issue 0 of a then-upcoming DeFalco/Frenz comic called Mr. Right. Issue 0 was only 5 pages, but it set up the basic concept well: Mr. Right, "the World's Greatest Super-Athlete", is a holographic program that is controlled by a young boy (Jeffrey "Player One" Lopez) to fight crime - and by "controlled" it is pretty literal - as "Player One" actually uses a video game controller to do so. The catch of course is that any damage Mr. Right takes, Player One also takes (as he is physically and psychically linked to Mr. Right). So it is a risky thing for this young kid to do.
Player One also uses a visor that I guess lets him see through the eyes of Mr. Right. When the visor or controller is interrupted, Mr. Right begins to lose his "structural integrity". That kind of stuff. And of course, the name "Mr. Right" is related to the theme in the story about doing the "right thing" and all this. Definitely a younger audience centered book (just like Randy O'Donnell, as well as the MC2 work that preceded these), but with that classic Defalco/Frenz/Buscema style that can appeal to some older readers as well.
Mr. Right issue 1 was supposed to be published by Image Comics in 2001.
I believe issue 1 was supposed to come out around issue 2 or 3 of Randy O'Donnell, but for some reason never did (in issue 3 of Randy O'Donnell, there is a next issue box for Mr. Right issue 2, implying issue 1 was already out - which ended up not being the case). I have not googled the reason why the comic series was called off (I wonder if anyone even asks haha). But it looked like quite a fun story in my view, so it was always a bit of a minor disappoint to me that it never saw the light of day.
This is a pretty funny ad now that Mr. Right is currently 21 years old or so haha.
Two comic pdfs were sent to backers, the now published Mr. Right issue 1 (now titled The R.I.G.H.T. Project issue 1) and a mini-comic.
The R.I.G.H.T. Project mini comic is a reprint of the original Mr. Right issue 0 flip book, only of course the title has been changed:
This is the original issue 0.
And here is the pdf version with the new title. You can also see some coloring changes, like the controller.
Well, I typed too long on just the introductory stuff, I will write a bit more my next post about the actual issue 1 that has finally been published. Or maybe I should wait to receive the physical copy, though I have already read the pdf. But it was just exciting to finally see this come out. I love the Ron Frenz/Sal Buscema art in issue 1. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 6, 2022 20:08:26 GMT -5
^seems like a fun couple of books arfetto ! You might want to try looking up Acclaim/Valiant's Ninjak from the late 90's. It has a similar video game superhero vibe, same with Axcend (which I frequently lament having such a short life-span as well) After burning through the current Moon Knight run and loving it, I went back through to Ellis' revival of the character. It's an intense six issues and I applaud Brian Wood for keeping the same tone. Issue 4 still is an amazingly freaky read |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Feb 22, 2022 21:25:28 GMT -5
Read Lugosi: The Rise & Fall of Hollywood's Dracula, by Koren Shadmi last night.  As graphic novels go, it wasn't very strong. Shadmi does some decent photo-realistic art when looking at production stills and paused film scenes, but his artwork is otherwise uneven, and his writing and plotting leave much to be desired. However, as a biography, it's quite impressive. While I haven't double-checked Shadmi's sources to determine how accurate his information is, he seemed to know a lot about Bela that even I did not. So this probably would have worked better as a biography than a graphic novel, but the art hits right enough times to almost sort of earn the graphic novel format, even in spite of the stilted dialogue and unimaginative story structure. And no, if you're not already passionate about Lugosi, this work will not make you any more curious nor passionate about him. It's exceedingly dry in its execution, lending very little reverence to its subject. B- And, if you are curious to learn more about Lugosi, here's a shameless plug  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 15, 2022 21:40:39 GMT -5
Wow... I saw the Bendis Legion trade on the shelf at the library, and I figured I'd check it out.. I don't think I've ever seen someone have as little knowledge about a property as that.
like 40 pages of Immortal Rose and Thorn? really? Also, someone should let Bendis know those futures can't all happen at once.
Then we get to the actual Legion, where after 6 issues, there are some team members that have literally had 1 line. And I still don't have any idea what's going on, since that was barely the start of the plot. What we have mostly is pages and pages of inane conversation that don't contribute to anything... Bendis has only gotten worse as he gets older, IMO.
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Post by berkley on Mar 19, 2022 19:06:00 GMT -5
Love and Rockets #11: as has become the norm for me lately, I really like Jaime's work, which I thnk can stand with his best from the past, while Gilbert's has fallen off a bit, for me. His style has become a little too exaggerated for my taste - especially with certain extreme physical types such as body-builders or over-weight people. On the positive side, I think Fritz is still an interesting character - perhaps moreso than in her earlier years; others, e.g. her sister Petra, have become grotesque caricatures, sadly. I still enjoy reading his sections but they're no longer on a par with Jaime's, for me, as once they were.
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Post by commond on Mar 19, 2022 21:41:28 GMT -5
I had the opposite reaction. I actually preferred Gilbert's stories this time. A lot of Jaime's stuff felt like comic strips.
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Post by Trevor on Mar 20, 2022 12:02:10 GMT -5
I read the two Ultraman mini-series that Marvel put out over the last year or two, Rise of Ultraman and Trails of Ultraman. It’s a modern tale that has plenty of shallow and deep dive references to the various television series. For what it is, I’m not sure we could have expected much better. The art is good but doesn’t wow me, and the stories set things up nicely for hopefully continuing adventures.
I’m perhaps biased as a huge fan of the 1966 show; it, the original Trek, Batman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, my birth. Has there ever been a better year?
Just like the show, we have it mostly a story of the human characters, punctuated with occasional three minutes of monster action. I really enjoy the humor in some of the dialog between our conjoined team, and in the extra pages/stories in each issue 1. I’m really looking forward to the next series.
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Post by berkley on Mar 20, 2022 18:12:53 GMT -5
Moon Knight (2021) #1-#2 This is some good stuff right here. Having lost touch with Konoshu, Marc has opened his "Midnight Mission" in an effort to protect people from the more unsavory characters that haunt the Marvelverse What's funny is that practically every Moon Knight run since Ellis came on board has been great and I hope it continues
I liked the Ellis series but haven't read anything since because I was afraid they were reverting to the "crazy guy" version that I thought Ellis had done well to steer away from. I do have the first Lemire collection but have held off reading it for that reason. I'll give it a try eventually, though.
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Post by berkley on Mar 20, 2022 18:17:21 GMT -5
I had the opposite reaction. I actually preferred Gilbert's stories this time. A lot of Jaime's stuff felt like comic strips.
I do think Gilbert has done well to bring the focus in on a smaller group of characters. All those Fritz-imitators were confusing as hell and I found my attention wandering whenever they were the centre of attention.
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Post by berkley on Mar 20, 2022 23:06:42 GMT -5
Read The Old Guard, by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez: entertaining enough, but I was hoping for a bit more from the premise. Maybe it's developed further in later books. This one felt a bit under-cooked, with dialogue straight out of a Hollywood formula action movie. Actually, I think it might work better as a movie than as a comic, so I might try the Charlise Theron film version some time. A movie with a humdrum script can be carried by the actors' charisma or the direction or action choreography or what have you. In a comic, all that has to be done by the artist and while there was nothing grievously wrong with Fernandez's work, it didn't stand out to me in any way, either. I still like the concept but I doubt I'll try any more books in this series.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 26, 2022 22:32:50 GMT -5
Read The Old Guard, by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez: entertaining enough, but I was hoping for a bit more from the premise. Maybe it's developed further in later books. This one felt a bit under-cooked, with dialogue straight out of a Hollywood formula action movie. Actually, I think it might work better as a movie than as a comic, so I might try the Charlise Theron film version some time. A movie with a humdrum script can be carried by the actors' charisma or the direction or action choreography or what have you. In a comic, all that has to be done by the artist and while there was nothing grievously wrong with Fernandez's work, it didn't stand out to me in any way, either. I still like the concept but I doubt I'll try any more books in this series. I felt the same way... I randomly grabbed an issue of 'tales of the old guard' I liked, and went and got the first trade, but it rang a bit hollow. It was decent. but something was definitely missing. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 27, 2022 8:53:24 GMT -5
I read the two Ultraman mini-series that Marvel put out over the last year or two, Rise of Ultraman and Trails of Ultraman. It’s a modern tale that has plenty of shallow and deep dive references to the various television series. For what it is, I’m not sure we could have expected much better. The art is good but doesn’t wow me, and the stories set things up nicely for hopefully continuing adventures. I’m perhaps biased as a huge fan of the 1966 show; it, the original Trek, Batman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, my birth. Has there ever been a better year? Just like the show, we have it mostly a story of the human characters, punctuated with occasional three minutes of monster action. I really enjoy the humor in some of the dialog between our conjoined team, and in the extra pages/stories in each issue 1. I’m really looking forward to the next series. Really not a fan of Higgins' writing style since I first read his work in Boom's Power Rangers book. I like Ultraman well enough (more into Kamen Rider honestly), but I do appreciate the sheer level of detail that went into the show for the time |
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