Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,946
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Post by Crimebuster on Oct 3, 2019 8:27:44 GMT -5
Just had a most unusual reading experience. A student of mine recommended I read Assassination Classroom the other day. I read the first 100 or so issues a few years ago. I remember it being pretty interesting. Like a lot of manga, it takes its sweet time to get where its going, with a lot of side stories. That's not necessarily a bad thing, given that the writer is much better than, say, Bendis, who does the same thing with no purpose or meaning. At least here it's fleshing out the cast and stuff. The series was still being published when I read it - I think they were on like #102 - so I never saw the end. Not sure if it came together. If you want to get into some long form manga, another series I'd recommend is 20th Century Boys. It's like 250+ issues. The premise is killer - there's a group of kids growing up around 1969 who form a club where they make up a bunch of stories about how the world ends and write it down in a notebook. Decades later, in the 90's, the stuff from their journal starts happening in the real world, so the main character - who never realized any of his dreams and is stuck in a dead end job - starts investigating and realizes that one of his childhood friends is using their journal as a guide to bring about the apocalypse. Now he has to track them down and figure out which one- and how to stop it. Its really good, which some great "Stand By Me" tones of lost childhood.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 5, 2019 12:28:08 GMT -5
Really enjoyed the three part Invaders story for the 1998 Marvel Universe comic (Stern, Epting, Williamson). It seems like I picked a good companion read in the Fantastic Four Special Edition comic from 1984 which re-presents FF Annual #1 and the Sub-Mariner/Atlantis war on the surface world. Can't recommend the Invaders comics highly enough! Makes me want to get some more of the '70s series (especially #32 & 33).
I also read the set of nine 1999 The Justice Society Returns comics with all the various titles, and it was a great read too... luckily I knew of the original '70s Stalker comic. A variety of artists including Russ Heath made it even more special. It starts with an All-Star Comics #1 and then in classic JSA format they split up into various pairs, but re-using golden-age titles/mast-heads for Adventure, Sensation, Star-Spangled, but also Smash and Thrilling, what no More Fun? It all wraps up in an All-Star Comics #2.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 5, 2019 13:37:54 GMT -5
Really enjoyed the three part Invaders story for the 1998 Marvel Universe comic (Stern, Epting, Williamson). Have you read the Monster Hunters arc that followed that one? It's a hoot.
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Post by Mormel on Oct 6, 2019 0:40:51 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #251, in a way putting an end to the 'Outback Era' and starting the period in which the X-Men are scattered...
Iconic issue, the final panel of which kicks off the Wolvie/Jubes friendship: "So kid, you gonna give a fella a hand, or what?"
Ooh, reading Rurouni Kenshin and spotted a minor error: when Yuzaemon says he and his son Yutarou are to travel to Germany, a map is showing the country with its current (post-WW2, post-unification) borders; but in 1878, in which RuroKen is set, Germany covered a wider territory.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 6, 2019 6:15:30 GMT -5
Really enjoyed the three part Invaders story for the 1998 Marvel Universe comic (Stern, Epting, Williamson). Have you read the Monster Hunters arc that followed that one? It's a hoot. Yep.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2019 6:21:08 GMT -5
Marvel Masterworks
Sgt. Fury: Vol. 3 and 4
DC Archives
Comic Cavalcade Archives 1 Sgt. Rock Archives 1 and 2
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 6, 2019 12:58:12 GMT -5
Have you read the Monster Hunters arc that followed that one? It's a hoot. Not as yet, I might get around to it sometime, I liked the monsters in those Flashback one-shots, also Walt Simonson's Fin Fang Foom in an '80s Thor. It's because of EdoBosnar that I even knew of this series.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2019 7:20:14 GMT -5
DC Archives
Sgt. Rock Archives 3 and 4
With these two out of the way, I have read 80% of all known DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks to date.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Oct 8, 2019 9:52:00 GMT -5
Yesterday I read the Marvel Graphic Novel "Emperor Doom." I had never read this before, and it came out in mid-1987 but takes place around Avengers #255 which was a little earlier. I enjoyed the story quite a bit, which involves Doctor Doom becoming ruler of the world with a very strong assist from Namor. What I couldn't wrap my head around, is the fact that Namor was pretty much a villain in this story (which takes place around Avengers #255,) yet by issue #262 the Avengers trust Namor enough to let him JOIN the Avengers? That kind of suspended my suspension of disbelief.
But it was still a good read.
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Post by profholt82 on Oct 9, 2019 22:24:39 GMT -5
I recently read ASM 259 which fills in Mary Jane's backstory. I suppose it's a "retcon" to some extent since MJ has been around since the early issues, but I think the story does a great job of explaining why she is the way she is. It delves into her early years and some family tragedies which have befallen her. In a way, her past mirrors Peter's in that they both carry heavy guilt for their past transgressions towards loved ones. And during this period in Spidey history, he was in an on again/off again flirtatious relationship with Felicia Hardy (Black Cat), and I always loved their dynamic and found her much more interesting than MJ. You see, born in 82, so my main Spidey years were the late 80s/early 90s growing up, and those issues dealt with their tumultuous marriage years. But after reading this issue (which had somehow eluded me over the years), I have a newfound understanding of how they connect with each other and why their relationship makes sense.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 5:43:10 GMT -5
DC Archives
Sugar and Spike: Vol. 1 Shazam! Family: Vol. 1 Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess Archives: Vol. 1
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 11, 2019 12:49:45 GMT -5
Not read, but I'll post here how I am really enjoying the Justice League cartoon series circa 2003-04-05... none of which I saw at the time. After enjoying the three Legion Of Super-Heroes animated DVDs so much I looked into this. Hawkgirl is my favorite! So far I've watched the debut three part Secret Orgins, two part War World, and three part Starcrossed (also available as a 'movie' on DVD). I have three other two part stories lined up to watch next. The cartoon style is slightly overdone on some of the guys' upper bodies, and those chins... but otherwise perfection! I noticed Paul Rivoche's name in the credits, he did all those cool Mr. X covers at Vortex!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 11, 2019 17:27:36 GMT -5
I just got this from the library! All-Star Comics Archives #8! It reprints All-Star Comics #34 to #38. Renewing my card to the Los Angeles County Public Library system reminded me that one of my long-term comics-reading goals is all the JSA appearances in All-Star Comics! I'm still trying to remember which ones I've read and which ones I haven't. I've read scattered reprints through the years and I've read various All-Star Comics Archives volumes through various libraries. The Los Angeles County Public Library has Volume 8 through Volume 11! So that's #34 to #57, and that seems like a good place to start while I figure out which one I've read from the earlier issues. Roy Thomas in The JSA Companion calls All-Star Comics #33 to #41 the high point of the JSA. So I decided to get out my reprint of All-Star Comics #33 and start with that before getting into the Archives volume. It's Super-Team Family #4! Young Hoosier X bought this off a spinner rack at a grocery store in New Castle, Indiana, when he was visiting his great grandmother. I still have that exact copy and I've read it a zillion times! Here's the original cover to All-Star #33: Now that I've had a chance to flip through All-Star Comics Archives #8, I'm pretty sure that this a volume I've already read. #34 is the first appearance of the Wizard! (I remember this one very well.) #35 is the first Per Degaton! #36 is the one where Batman and Superman guest star! #37 is the first Injustice Society of the World! (This one I read many many years ago, I think in the Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told) #38 is the first Black Canary! That's fine! I don't mind starting up my project again with some comics I've read before. Some of them I don't remember very well.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 13, 2019 5:08:01 GMT -5
Marvel Heroes and Legends (1996 and 1997) I was flipping through my single short box of floppies the other day, and came across these, and realized that - after buying them on the cheap as an afterthought many years ago - I'd only read the first but never read the second one. My thoughts on the 1996 edition haven't changed since I first read it: it's fine for what it is, a bit of a throwaway story scripted by Stan Lee based on a plot by Fabian Nicieza set in the early days of the Marvel U (on Sue and Reed's wedding day from the Fantastic Four Annual). It's entertaining enough, and the art, by the Buscema brothers, Romita Sr., Ditko, Colan, Marie Severin and Ron Frenz (inked by Palmer, Sinnott, Austin, Bill Reinhold and Milgrom) is mostly quite good. The 1997 book is ... just not that good, unless you ignore the dialog and just look at the pictures. Most of the art, by Sal Buscema, Dick Ayers, Ditko and Kane is good enough (except for the section by Ayers). The story, though, written by a writer with whom I'm entirely unfamiliar, John Felder, is - again - not good (I'm trying to avoid being overly negative, so that's the best I can do). Again, it's set in the early days of the Marvel U, as a sort of behind-the-scenes story to accompany Avengers #16, when the team became Cap's Kooky Quartet. Felder's attempts to mimic Lee's writing style of the time just come across as forced, and he most of the heroes' voices, especially Cap, are really off. I think I spent the equivalent of about $2/3 for this one, which was honestly too much.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 13, 2019 8:03:34 GMT -5
I just got this from the library! I have this one. It was a gift from Roy Thomas to thank me for my work on one of the All-Star Companion books. And, yes, it is the cream of the Golden Age JSA crop.
Cei-U! I summon the treasured memento!
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