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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 0:11:22 GMT -5
Read BPRD: Plague of Frogs Vol, 3, the omnibus collecting the 2006-2007 BPRD mini series The Universal Machine, The Garden of Souls and The Killing Ground, co-written by Mignola and John Arcudi with art by Guy Davis. Great stuff. Decided to finish up the BPRD omnibus editions as part of my Halloween horror reading, and hive Vol 4 left to go.
-M
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Post by The Cheat on Oct 19, 2017 14:53:24 GMT -5
Read BPRD: Plague of Frogs Vol, 3, the omnibus collecting the 2006-2007 BPRD mini series The Universal Machine, The Garden of Souls and The Killing Ground, co-written by Mignola and John Arcudi with art by Guy Davis. Great stuff. Decided to finish up the BPRD omnibus editions as part of my Halloween horror reading, and hive Vol 4 left to go. -M Great stuff. The Hell on Earth omnis are coming soon, I can't wait
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 19, 2017 20:22:45 GMT -5
I've been reading DC's Showcase Presents Batman Volume 6, which features all the Batman solo stories from Feb, 1971 to July, 1972. This was the era when I began buying comics, but I only bought one of the issues reprinted here--I got my Batman from Brave and the Bold, not Batman and Detective Comics. Except for Ra's al Ghul, Man-Bat, and the 10-Eyed Man, there are no "super-villains" here; this Batman is a much more human and vulnerable character than the portrayal of the last 30 years, a character who can be taken out with a lucky punch from an average thug, a character who finds it a challenge to be cuffed to a radiator. The stories by Denny O'Neill and Frank Robbins feature some ridiculously complicated plots that emphasize the detective aspect. I'm appreciating the art of Irv Novick more than I did back then--Irv was doing a pretty creditable job of following in Neal Adams' approach, although Adams' appearances in the volume are a lot flashier. We also see some decent work by Bob Brown, whose somewhat clunky work has always had some appeal to me, and Frank Robbins illustrates a few of his own stories in his distinctive style.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 20, 2017 8:44:05 GMT -5
I've been reading DC's Showcase Presents Batman Volume 6, which features all the Batman solo stories from Feb, 1971 to July, 1972. This was the era when I began buying comics, but I only bought one of the issues reprinted here--I got my Batman from Brave and the Bold, not Batman and Detective Comics. Except for Ra's al Ghul, Man-Bat, and the 10-Eyed Man, there are no "super-villains" here; this Batman is a much more human and vulnerable character than the portrayal of the last 30 years, a character who can be taken out with a lucky punch from an average thug, a character who finds it a challenge to be cuffed to a radiator. The stories by Denny O'Neill and Frank Robbins feature some ridiculously complicated plots that emphasize the detective aspect. I'm appreciating the art of Irv Novick more than I did back then--Irv was doing a pretty creditable job of following in Neal Adams' approach, although Adams' appearances in the volume are a lot flashier. We also see some decent work by Bob Brown, whose somewhat clunky work has always had some appeal to me, and Frank Robbins illustrates a few of his own stories in his distinctive style. The Haney-Aparo B&B version excepted, this is my favorite run of Batman stories. Cei-U! I summon the cream of the crop!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 20, 2017 9:27:39 GMT -5
I think old Irv Novick gets a bad rap. He was one of the most dependable pencilers of the era. His storytelling was textbook. He was one of the unsung heroes in the renovation of Batman during that period. I really missed him when he left Flash.
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 20, 2017 14:44:42 GMT -5
I'm also a Novick fan. When I started getting into DC comics, around 1973, I had a hard time distinguishing Novick's work from Dick Dillin's. When I could reliably tell those two apart, I figured I was becoming a half-decent art spotter.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 20, 2017 14:53:36 GMT -5
I didn't realize that Novick had such a poor reputation. personally, I enjoy his Batman stuff very much.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 20, 2017 19:38:33 GMT -5
To clear my head of all the Golden Age stuff I deal with on a daily basis, I'm reading the 1988 Suicide Squad series. I'd bought the first seven or eight off the stands before dropping out of comics altogether for eight years or so. I'd forgotten how good this was (although I'm even less enamored of Luke McDonnel's art now than I was back in the day): hard-hitting, unpredictable, and frequently thought-provoking. I laughed out loud when I got to the issue where Captain Boomerang tricks Slipknot into testing whether the bracelets the Squad wears will really blow their arm off if they try to run , a scene the movie recreated almost note for note. I'm up to issue #13 and looking forward to reading more. I sure hope it maintains the high quality of these early issues... and I hope the art improves! Cei-U! I summon the welcome change of pace!
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Post by urrutiap on Oct 20, 2017 20:00:11 GMT -5
Ive been reading some of the original Amazing Sider Man stuff. first appearance of Green Goblin was ok but kind of dull. I also hated reading the first Kraven appearance. Man that was slow to read and go through. Scorpion was pretty good.
Hope the other issues get better before I get up to issues 121 and 122
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Post by berkley on Oct 20, 2017 20:49:59 GMT -5
Read the first few weeks' worth of Frank Robbins's Johnny Hazard news-strip. I had been thinking that this didn't get started until after WWII but actually it was 5 June 1944 when the first strip appeared so it's a war story at this point, with the title character a pilot in the US Air Force. In the first story he and a couple buddies escape from Germany where they're POWs back to their American comrades, and the next one is about his initially antagonistic but later romantic (naturally) relationship with Brandy, a blonde female photographer assigned to his squad. So far, it's an enjoyable, if slightly predictable, WWII adventure strip with really nice artwork by Robbins.
Unfortunately, it looks like the second volume of these reprints is outrageously expensive for some reason so I'll probably have to skip ahead a bit once I finish this first one.
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Post by MDG on Oct 21, 2017 8:25:57 GMT -5
To clear my head of all the Golden Age stuff I deal with on a daily basis, I'm reading the 1988 Suicide Squad series. I'd bought the first seven or eight off the stands before dropping out of comics altogether for eight years or so. I'd forgotten how good this was (although I'm even less enamored of Luke McDonnel's art now than I was back in the day): hard-hitting, unpredictable, and frequently thought-provoking. I liked McDonnel's art, but the relation for me was in the Deadshot mini where he inked himself--very nice work. During that time, McDonnel put an ad in the CBG selling original art, with an address only 20 or so miles up the road from where I lived. I was surprised when I sent a check Tuesday and got the package Friday. In those days, I didn't know anyone in the original art biz who didn't wait for the check to clear.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 21, 2017 15:17:12 GMT -5
To clear my head of all the Golden Age stuff I deal with on a daily basis, I'm reading the 1988 Suicide Squad series. I'd bought the first seven or eight off the stands before dropping out of comics altogether for eight years or so. I'd forgotten how good this was (although I'm even less enamored of Luke McDonnel's art now than I was back in the day): hard-hitting, unpredictable, and frequently thought-provoking. I liked McDonnel's art, but the relation for me was in the Deadshot mini where he inked himself--very nice work. During that time, McDonnel put an ad in the CBG selling original art, with an address only 20 or so miles up the road from where I lived. I was surprised when I sent a check Tuesday and got the package Friday. In those days, I didn't know anyone in the original art biz who didn't wait for the check to clear. I read Suicide Squad on and off during most of the run, including a period from about #40 to #55 when I bought it regularly. It deserves it's reputation. I read the issues I have pretty regularly and I've been meaning to read the whole thing at some point. I may give it a go when I take a break from The Doom Patrol.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 21, 2017 16:06:15 GMT -5
I'm up to #15 of Suicide Squad and, boy howdy, McDonnel's art is growing on me now that he seems to have found a sympatico inker (or maybe he just plain got better). An interesting blend of Ken Steacy, Walt Simonson, Jim Steranko, and Mort Meskin. Two thumbs up.
Cei-U! I reconsider my opinion!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 23, 2017 2:01:06 GMT -5
I'm not really taking a break from the comics I was reading online, I'm just reading them a little slower because every series seems to have hit a bad patch. I'll talk about Doom Patrol on the "Doom Patrol" thread and The War that Time Forgot on the "Make War No More" thread. After the death of Dorma, Namor has left Atlantis and abandoned his throne to go wandering the oceans, and the series has become a lot like the Hulk as our wandering sub-mariner scoots around from one random adventure to another. It worked in the Hulk's series really well for years! But it's not working so well here. I have quite a few issues of Sub-Mariner from the 50s and 60s, so I know that Bill Everett comes back and the book gets a lot better pretty quick. But I don't know exactly when that happens. I think Namorita is introduced in #50! That's something to look forward to. Gene Colan left the art chores of Captain Marvel after #4, and it was taken over by Don Heck, inked by John Tartaglione and then Vince Colletta. The art isn't the problem; I actually like it just fine (but, yes, Colan is a hard act to follow). It's these stories! Its getting very repetitive to have Mar-Vell face the Menace of the Month as Yon-Rogg tries to manipulate events so that Mar-Vell is killed or looks bad or is forced to disobey orders. It wouldn't be so bad if the menaces were better. The Metazoid (in #5) wasn't so bad, but since then we've had Solam, Quasimodo, the Aakon (an alien race, enemy of the Kree (but who isn't!?) and ... it turns out that Mar-Vell's human identity Dr. Lawson is a bad person who makes killer androids! It looks like the Aakon are going to be around for a few issues. I suspect I'll find out why they've never appeared enough that I've ever heard of them. I'm already getting more than an inkling. I'm starting to wonder if Medic Una killed herself to get out of this series!
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Post by The Cheat on Oct 23, 2017 14:46:38 GMT -5
What If... Michael Morbius got caught in a gamma explosion?
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