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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2022 19:39:23 GMT -5
Belit & Valeria: Swords vs. Sorcery #1 from Ablaze is one of the worst comics I have ever read in my 49 years of reading comics. -M Gotta disagree with you there, it's not even he worst Belit comic... that goes to Marvel's horrendous Belit Orgin story... but I'll admit its a close run thing. Belit as a sex crazed zombie with a death wish is definitely not what I was expecting. I'm torn between buying it anyway (because I like Ablaze and I want them to keep trying) to dropping it for obvious reasons. the plot was non-sensical, the art was far worse than the Marvel Belit book, panels jumped without any narrative reason as did pages, there was absolutely no narrative flow, and at points you cold absolutely not figure out what was supposed to be happening form panel to panel or page to page (whether that is the script's fault in Bemis or the artist I don't know, I have read other stuff from Bemis that was at least readable), it was impossible to distinguish characters form each other either by the way they were drawn or from their dialogue. If there were no tails on the dialogue balloons, you would not be able to tell which character was speaking, it was all the same. It's clear Bemis has zero affinity for Howard's style or characters, for as pulpy as Howard's stuff was, it wasn't filled with modern obscenities for the sake of shock value and being cool, Howard actually had some subtlety and a pretty impressive vocabulary, Bemis demonstrates neither, and there is no way in any realm of possibility that Howard's Valeria would ever be reduced to flashing her breasts to get out of a situation, Bemis has reduced two capable warrior woman into two cardboard parodies that make porn characters look like they have depth and range. The action was non-sensical, the characterization non-existent, the art atrocious, the dialogue lazy. The Marvel Belit was bad, but it read like someone trying who had no idea what they were doing and failed, it was terrible but not intentionally bad by the creator's design. Bemis knows what he is doing, his other comic work shows he is a capable storyteller who knows how to write for the comic medium. This is exactly what he wanted to achieve on the page. It's not like he tried and failed, this is what he wanted to put out there for this project. That makes it infinitely worse than the Marvel Belit effort in my estimation. -M PS if this is supposed to be a sword and sorcery adventure tale-why skip the entire portion of Belit regaining a ship and setting out to capture Valeria and their showdown (or if it was depicted, I couldn't tell form what was on the page), but instead they skip that whole section to highlight Belit's zombie sexploits and then skip to Valeria in bondage. Again, this is intentionally what Bemis wanted on the page and what Ablaze wanted to peddle to customers. Marvel's Belit was a serious attempt at a comic that failed miserably, this is a Skinemax level of intentional bad. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 16, 2022 19:03:58 GMT -5
I kinda like the art... I agree the flow from panel to panel is pretty haphazard, but the figures themselves are really well done. Issue 2 didn't really get any better, sadly... maybe even worse, actually. I almost thing Bemis is going for a parody? Not sure though (which is a problem). I'll probably end up buying the thing (I feel bad to stiff my LCS on the preorder), so I'll keep you posted  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2022 19:38:27 GMT -5
I kinda like the art... I agree the flow from panel to panel is pretty haphazard, but the figures themselves are really well done. Issue 2 didn't really get any better, sadly... maybe even worse, actually. I almost thing Bemis is going for a parody? Not sure though (which is a problem). I'll probably end up buying the thing (I feel bad to stiff my LCS on the preorder), so I'll keep you posted I only preordered #1, so no stiffing the lcs by skipping the rest. That first issue is already in my discard box of stuff to put out for $1 each (or less) next time I do a show or to put in my next Classic Comics Exchange post if I ever get around to it. It's not worth the space it would take up in my house to keep. -M PS and I will add, pretty pictures that can't tell a story well is bad comic book art. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 17, 2022 7:26:26 GMT -5
Just preorder the first one was probably smart . Oh, and I agree 100% I was in no way recommending the book, it's definitely awful.. just trying to look on the bright side |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2022 10:33:22 GMT -5
Just preorder the first one was probably smart . Oh, and I agree 100% I was in no way recommending the book, it's definitely awful.. just trying to look on the bright side Over the last year or two I have tried very hard to adhere to the Bambi/Thumper principle of not saying anything when you have nothing positive to say (not always successfully mind you, buy I am trying) when it comes to comics, and tried to avoid conflating "I don't like this" with "This is crap" presuming my tastes are an objective standard of quality, so I have tried to avoid blasting books I didn't like, but this one was just so bad I had to vent somewhere. -M |
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Post by badwolf on Jun 20, 2022 14:11:54 GMT -5
I just finished the first volume of this manga and would highly recommend it to cat lovers who are also gamers:  Basically it is about an asocial office worker and serious gamer who adopts a stray cat found at her work. But when she gets him home she realizes she has no clue about cats and so thinks of everything in gaming terms, i.e. the kitten needs to "level up," etc. When she thinks he has fleas she sees it as a "debuff" that is draining his "HP" and panics. I found it LOL funny. |
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Post by commond on Jun 25, 2022 20:30:06 GMT -5
Fables 152 was a bit of a table setter, but it did introduce a new character that was meant to be in the original series. The new Berserk chapters had pretty good art, but I am a bit worried that it is going to be straight plot from here on out. They were a bit thin on dialogue.
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Post by cellardweller on Jul 4, 2022 15:40:33 GMT -5
I just got DC Pride 2021, DC Pride 2022, DC Pride-Tim Drake Special, and the recent issues of Naomi.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 10, 2022 14:05:07 GMT -5
Impossible Team-up: Impossible Jones & Captain Lightning The third Impossible Jones book and the second in what will be a series of four team-up stories ( I wrote about the first team-up, starring Holly Daze, last year, and if you’re unfamiliar with the character, you can read my review of the first Impossible Jones book as well). In this episode (under the title “Bring the Thunder”), Imp teams up with the main square-jawed do-gooder in New Hope City, Captain Lightning. He wants her to help him protect a mysterious stone called the ‘power agate’, held in a high-security research facility, from being stolen by none other than Section Zero (yep, Karl Kesel’s other co-creation). Imp reluctantly agrees to help, as she wants to cement her questionable bona fides as a hero with the good Captain. Thanks to a very successful and then some Kickstarter campaign, this book also has two 6-page Even Steven back-up features, “The Devil You Say” and “The Split”, the first one written by Mark Waid and the second by Kurt Busiek – they’re both origin stories (kind of like that annual that has several different original stories for the Phantom Stranger). As with the previous Impossible Jones installments, I have no complaints here. This is fun stuff, and I’m looking forward to the next book (which has also been successfully funded on Kickstarter).
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 16, 2022 14:21:15 GMT -5
I almost never read modern comics, but I read a couple recently that looked fun. The Flash #783 has Wally West and some other speedsters, with the help of Mr Terrific, go through the omniverse (whatever that is) in search of Barry Allen (is he lost again???). Anyway, it's part 1 of The Search for Barry Allen, and it was enjoyable, so I'll have to check out the rest of this story when it comes out. I especially liked the Silver Age Barry & Kid Flash. This story had some Kid Flash I've never seen before, but like I said, I almost never read new comics.  I also read Superman: Son of Kal-El #1. I liked this quite a bit. There's not much action, but plenty of characterization, good dialogue, and some humor, and I value those things more than action nowadays, anyway. I even liked Damien Wayne. I've never read a comic with him before, and I was expecting not to like him, but he seemed kinda cool.  |
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 17, 2022 12:28:30 GMT -5
I even liked Damien Wayne. I've never read a comic with him before, and I was expecting not to like him, but he seemed kinda cool. Definitely check out Tomasi's Super Sons, it's a great little team up book between Damien and Jon |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 17, 2022 14:14:40 GMT -5
I even liked Damien Wayne. I've never read a comic with him before, and I was expecting not to like him, but he seemed kinda cool. Definitely check out Tomasi's Super Sons, it's a great little team up book between Damien and Jon Thanks. I'll add it to my list. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 17, 2022 14:29:04 GMT -5
I read Ms Marvel (2014) #1. I watched the first episode on Disney +, and I liked it well enough, and from what I've heard, the character is an upbeat one, so I decided to give it a shot. So far, so good. Enjoyable.  |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 8, 2022 4:54:40 GMT -5
This has been covered here before, by our own shaxper, here, here and - just last week - here, but I thought I'd give it a shout out in this thread as well, since it seems apropos. Namely, over the weekend I read through the three volumes our own Roquefort Raider's The Orion Arm:  You can find summaries and many lovely image samples in the posts linked above. I just wanted to underscore that this is a thoroughly enjoyable series. It's what I'd consider an old-style space opera of the grandest kind - RR notes in his acknowledgements that he was inspired by - among others - Druillet and Barry Smith, and that's definitely apparent in both the art and storytelling, although I have to say I can see a little Starlin in there as well. It definitely pushed some of my nostalgia buttons, as it's easy to imagine this is something that was serialized in Heavy Metal or one of the Warren magazines back in the day (and truth be told, RR points out that he first began working on this way back in 1978). That's not to say that I think it's derivative - it's still very much its own thing, and has a real sense of freshness about it. There will be a fourth volume that's supposed to wrap up the story, and all I can say is - I can't wait. And although Shax mentions it in all of the posts linked above, here's a link to the products page where you can purchase everything. The physical books are in French, but it's also possible to get pdfs of the English translation (which is what I did). |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 9, 2022 9:18:45 GMT -5
I read the Han Solo TPB which reprints the 2016 Han Solo miniseries. It was a pretty good story with excellent artwork. It apparently takes place shortly after Star Wars: A New Hope Han and Chewie undertake a top secret rebel mission to pick up some rebel spies, with the most dangerous starship race in the galaxy as a cover.  |
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