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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 8, 2024 14:59:51 GMT -5
The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, by Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh. Back in the day, when we moved away from any LCS, I dropped my weekly habit and read comic-book in collected form or not at all. I wasn't there for Dave Sim's short-lived Glamourpuss title, although it carried a strip about Alex Raymond and photorealism in comics, two things that would have landed that book on my pull list in other circumstances. I hoped for a few years to see that material collected, but in vain... and the print run of Glamourpuss was so low that back issues were either unavailable, or too expensive for my taste. This recent graphic novel is, surprisingly enough (to me, at least), not a repackaging of the Glamourpuss material. I've no way to check, but I read online that Sim started redrawing a lot of his own pages for this new book (something he had told aspiring cartoonists not to do back in the '90s!) Unfortunately, a crippling problem in his wrist prevented him from bringing that ship to port. The same thing happened to famous European cartoonist Gotlib, and to Quebec's own Jean-Sébastien Bérubé... and I can't think of something quite as unfair as a cartoonist being unable to draw or a musician being unable to play. (Maybe their going blind and deaf, respectively; but it any case, it s###s mightily.) That's where Carson Grubaugh comes in, providing artistic assistance, and a very capable artist he is. What is the book about? Oh, Lord, it's hard to say. This Forbes article is pretty spot-on, I think. Personally, I found in it all that I had loved in Sim's work in his heyday, as well as all that irritated me. Artistically, the book is beautiful; from Sim's and Grubaugh's own work to reproductions of works by many great realistic comic-strip artists, each page is a delight to look at. Historically and technically, I learned a whole lot about the history of people like Alex Raymond, Mitlon Caniff, Stan Drake and more; I must also say that Sim's theory about how Raymond managed to draw such fine lines using only a brush is pretty convincing. That's one of the author's strengths: when he talks about comics or about how to produce them, he really knows what he's talking about and his insight is invaluable. What got me to bang my head on the wall, though, is the same thing that had me throwing away issues of Cerebus during the "Hemingway" chapters of Cerebus, when a decent comic-book chapter would be followed by pages and pages and pages of speculations about Hemingway, his wife, their works and how everyone had everything wrong about them. When he starts working on an idea, Sim is capable of monk-like concentration and determination. He'll read just about everything he can find on his subject, not only locally but also having photocopies of original documents sent to him from the Library of Congress. He seems to be extremely thorough in his research, and it is quite impressive to see what he digs up. That being said... he seems susceptible to falling in love with his own ideas, especially when he sees conspiracies (or, in this case, "comic-book metaphysics") in something. In this particular case, he builds a case for art imitating life, but also for life imitating art in some quasi supernatural way. To buttress his case, he presents a plethora of facts that look to me, as an ordinary reader, to be either coincidences or be very tenuous connections. Yes, yes, Raymond died in a car crash and a colleague of his once drew a car crash in a comic-strip... so bloody what? When one wants to make links between different facts and are allowed to use any point whatsoever, no matter how relevant, it's quite easy to come up with something. Trying to find the number "seven" in anything is not that hard, and as there are 365 days in a year, the odds that someone's birthday will occur at the same date as some other event are massively higher than winning the lottery. Sim weaves his web of synchronicity as if it revealed something deep and mysterious, but I found the exercise tedious and not a little silly, for all that I admire the effort. What remains is a very impressive book with lovely art, with plenty of interesting information, but with a central thesis that is unlikely to convince anyone that there is such a thing as comic-book metaphysics. It just makes me want to see reprints of old comic-strips all the more!!!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 11, 2024 8:41:40 GMT -5
I read Star Trek: Defiant today on Hoopla... it's been intriguing me on the shelf for a while, but no enough to pay for,since I generally don't like Cantwell. And while I know in essence all comics are fan fiction, this one really felt like it.
I random collection of character join Worf to try to stop Kahless' clone and his new 'red path' from taking over. Worf's crew is Ambassador Spock, Lore, Belanna Torres, roe Laren, and a random Orion slaver. And then Commander Sela turns up. The plot is mildly intriguing, and it's fun to Worf on Klingon steroids, but overall definitely not worth paying for, as I suspected.
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 18, 2024 14:54:26 GMT -5
Stargirl : The lost children #1 - #6 ( 2023) Really good ! It's great to see golden age characters in this , If only they were brought back permanently it would be amazing !
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 27, 2024 16:24:21 GMT -5
BarrierBrian K. Vaughn (script), Marcos Martin (art) and Muntsa Vincente (colors), 2017  Barrier is a pretty interesting tale dealing with the themes of illegal immigration and language. It starts out on a ranch in Texas on the Mexican border, where a surly ranch owner named Liddy is alerted to the fact that the head of one of her horses is found out in the scrub, seemingly cut clean from the body. Liddy is convinced it’s some kind of message from one of the drug cartels, whom she suspects of sending the migrants who often pass through her property. Meanwhile, a man named Oscar fleeing from Honduras finally reaches the border and crosses over onto Liddy’s land, where he gets caught in some kind of trap that Liddy set up. When Liddy comes out with a shotgun to confront him, they’re, well, sucked up into a giant spaceship.  The rest of the story involves Liddy and Oscar finding themselves forced to cooperate in the giant vessel as they try to deal with the aliens, who seem to alternate between indifferent and actively hostile. This is a pretty quick and gripping read, although be aware, it’s bilingual, meaning that the dialogue in many parts of the story that deal with Oscar and his past are all in Spanish with no translation offered. I was able to figure out the meaning of the shorter sentences but often had to use a dictionary app. However, the storytelling is clear enough that you can get by without resorting to any kind of translation software.  This is, by the way, available at the Panel Syndicate, where you can buy it for any price you want. Also available there is another, earlier collaboration between Vaughn and Martin, Private Eye, which is also quite good – I read it back in 2015 when it was first released, and I see that MRPs_Missives reviewed it in this thread back in 2016.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 28, 2024 9:56:09 GMT -5
I finished the TMNT IDW collection vol. 7... this was not my favorite one. After Shredder's defeat, Splinter takes over the the foot clan tries to 'reform' it, but seems more like the foot is making Splinter evil.
Since we all love our wrestling analogies... this was not a fun heel turn for Splinter. There seems to be no reason for it, no logic, and no build up, it just sort of happens. Then there's this uber-plot with some gods toying with man that gets back burnered that was completely uninteresting. Might be a bit before I get the next one.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 28, 2024 18:00:46 GMT -5
MaydayAlex de Campi (script), Tony Parker and Blond (art), 2016-17  This is, like the one I reviewed just above, another comic that’s available at Panel Syndicate. It’s a historical spy thriller set in 1971, with two Soviet operatives as its main characters. One has the codename Felix, and he’s basically a hitman for military intelligence (GRU) who’s sent to Palm Springs to kill a KGB defector who has a roll of microfilm containing a list of hundreds of Soviet agents working in the Far East. After accomplishing this task, he meets with a KGB agent codenamed Rose who has to take him to the KGB officers attached to the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco. ‘Rose’, however, makes the ill-advised decision to take a detour and party with some hippies, and this leads to a major f-up as the two try to make their way through California with the CIA and FBI hot on their tails. I always like period pieces if they’re done well, and this one is done pretty good. My main criticism would be that – like so many more modern comics – both the writer and artists try to make it look a little too much like a movie (to the point that de Campi even insists on having a musical score, which is indicated by the names of various songs written in the gutters). Anyway, there’s a follow-up series featuring ‘Codename: Felix’ which I’m pretty interested in reading now.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 30, 2024 14:59:24 GMT -5
Bronze StarMike Baron (story), Pat Broderick (art), 2023  This book was released late last year after a successful crowdfunding campaign. It’s a weird Western tale set in 1880; the main character, Harley Brogden, flees into Canada from Montana (where he’s wanted for killing some rich guy’s son in a poker game – the son pulled his gun first).  After wandering around for a few months, he finds refuge in a little town near a defunct mine at the foot of the Rockies. The local sheriff, a Croatian immigrant, takes a liking to Harley and eventually makes him his deputy. But the sheriff is also a werewolf, which will obviously cause problems down the line, as will the fact that the rich dad down in Montana has gathered up a posse to hunt down Harley...  I generally like weird Westerns, and I really like Broderick’s art, but I was mostly disappointed with this. The story is pretty basic and predictable, and even the dialogue is kind of flat and, at times, clichéd. It’s too bad, because the art is *very* nice. It definitely deserved better writing.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 30, 2024 15:41:08 GMT -5
Bronze StarMike Baron (story), Pat Broderick (art), 2023 This book was released late last year after a successful crowdfunding campaign. It’s a weird Western tale set in 1880; the main character, Harley Brogden, flees into Canada from Montana (where he’s wanted for killing some rich guy’s son in a poker game – the son pulled his gun first). After wandering around for a few months, he finds refuge in a little town near a defunct mine at the foot of the Rockies. The local sheriff, a Croatian immigrant, takes a liking to Harley and eventually makes him his deputy. But the sheriff is also a werewolf, which will obviously cause problems down the line, as will the fact that the rich dad down in Montana has gathered up a posse to hunt down Harley... I generally like weird Westerns, and I really like Broderick’s art, but I was mostly disappointed with this. The story is pretty basic and predictable, and even the dialogue is kind of flat and, at times, clichéd. It’s too bad, because the art is *very* nice. It definitely deserved better writing. Maybe it's just the western setting but that art reminds me a lot of John Severin |
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2024 14:10:34 GMT -5
The Best Thing I Read This Week
Week 1 of 52, ending 1/7/24
Swamp Thing (1972) issues 1-4, from the Absolute Edition
I’m (again) starting a quest this year to read all of Swamp Thing in chronological order, one issue per day. All the various series, guest appearances, even the three prototype appearances before the Wein/Wrightson series. So backtracking a few days to last week, the best thing I read was the beginning of this amazingly beautiful Absolute edition.
I’ve read this early issues a couple dozen times over the years, but this is the best presentation yet. I haven’t compared the coloring to the originals or the myriad other versions, but perhaps my love for a slightly oversized version would be too string to sway me away from this in any case. I get a little hard every night that I hold this thing, spiritually at least.
Heck, this book might be the favorite thing in my possession, ever. My collecting roots are in Swamp Thing, no pun intended, but ha!
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2024 14:14:21 GMT -5
The Best Thing I Read This Week
Week 2 of 52, ending 1/14/24
Where the Body Was
Probably could have picked more early Swamp Thing, but let’s go with this Brubaker/Phillips joint.
I hate to admit this, but it’s probably the first thing of their’s that I’ve read to completion. I started Criminal and saw that it was perfect comics, so as I so often do, moved on to reading other stuff to find more perfect comics to stockpile. My save-the-best-for-last piles have won a thousand Eisners.
But am vowing to change that modus operandi and read the greatness on my shelves, and to also read more current stuff. Wow, went into this thinking it might just be a simple murder mystery, but it’s not really just a mystery, at least a murder one, and obviously not simple at all. He writes characters so well, you end up caring for everyone at least a bit. And the whole thing ends up being more about keeping secrets and other facets of the human condition all told in such a relatable way. Looking forward to reading more of their collaborations soon.
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2024 14:20:45 GMT -5
The Best Thing I Read This Week
Week 3 of 52, ending 1/21/24
Wonder Woman (2023) issues 1-5
Bit behind on the last year or so of DC, but rather than try to catch up chronologically like usual, decided to dive right in to a couple of the new titles.
Yeah, pretty much everything that Jason (praised on another forum) said a couple days ago. Love the the dual storylines, and the super kids backups are a hoot. Beautiful art and I’m hopeful that the story turns out as well as it’s shaping up to be so far.
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2024 14:22:03 GMT -5
The Best Thing I Read This Week
Week 4 of 52, ending 1/28/24
Rachel Rising (2011-2016) issues 23-42
I read most of the series, one issue per day, back in my October 100 issues of horror marathon, but then real life deaths starting happening and reading much of anything just didn’t happen for a couple months.
Back tracked a bit and read basically the second half of the series last week. An amazing ride, glad I didn’t have to wait for this month by month, because it’s a page turner. Almost every issue had a nice reveal or cliffhanger ending, and I guess it’d be called a decompressed style because each issue is a very quick read.
Normally, that would bother me, but Terry Moore combines such beautiful art with storytelling that just draws you in and takes you on an emotional roller coaster. There isn’t a ton of dialogue, but the words he chooses and the facial expressions and body language convey true depth. I think I welled or choked up a bit at least twenty times as I read the series, you really care about these characters, even the minor ones and antagonists.
Went in almost completely blind, just knew it was horror from the SiP guy. Don’t want to spoil it, but I’d recommend this series to anyone.
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2024 14:23:19 GMT -5
I apologize for the multiple posts, but we’re doing a weekly ‘best thing I read’ thread in my other forum, and I figured I might as well cross-post, and catch up.
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 1, 2024 9:36:32 GMT -5
I finished the TMNT IDW collection vol. 7... this was not my favorite one. After Shredder's defeat, Splinter takes over the the foot clan tries to 'reform' it, but seems more like the foot is making Splinter evil. Since we all love our wrestling analogies... this was not a fun heel turn for Splinter. There seems to be no reason for it, no logic, and no build up, it just sort of happens. Then there's this uber-plot with some gods toying with man that gets back burnered that was completely uninteresting. Might be a bit before I get the next one. Having gods in the story beyond Kitsune was probably a bad idea. IDK, seems like a bit too much going on |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 3, 2024 12:51:32 GMT -5
Dog Man: A Tale of Two KittiesDav Pilkey, 2017  I just learned recently that Zagreb’s library system has a number of Pilkey’s books in English, so I checked this and another one out the other day. Dog Man is a character who has a dog’s head with a human body, created – in horror-show fashion – when a bomb blew off a cop’s head and a police dog’s body, so the doctors attached the intact parts.  And Dog Man is now a cop who has all kinds of adventures.  In this one, he’s first sent to guard the body of a villain he had defeated before, Flippy the psychokinetic fish, at a science institute where the researchers want to study his brain, but he kind of botches that up when, like many dogs do, he squished the dead fish’s body by rolling around on it. The scientists then fix Flippy’s body by adding some bionic attachments, but Dog Man messes up again and the lost body ends up in a living spray factory and comes back to life.  Flippy then uses the living spray to bring a bunch of buildings to life and then launches an attack on the city. The book’s second plot involves another adversary of Dog Man’s, Petey the evil genius cat, who creates a clone of himself. The clone, Lil’ Petey, ends up being a disappointment, because 1) he’s still a kitten and 2) he’s not at all evil. Petey abandons him (he later regrets that) and Lil’ Petey ends up living with Dog Man for a while. Oh, yeah, Petey also creates a cybernetic armor, called HD 80, for Lil’ Petey, which becomes important in the confrontation with Flippy and his army of animated buildings. Obviously, like probably everybody else on this forum, I’m not the target audience for this book. However, I found this absolutely delightful. It’s cute and genuinely funny. And the book has some nice extras in the back, like a PSA about how psychologically and educationally beneficial it is for kids to read to dogs (based on an actual UC Davis study)...  ...and these rather amusing ‘how to draw’ the various character bits: 
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