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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2020 23:30:53 GMT -5
And the runner -up at #2The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Vol. 1 by Don Rosa (Fantagraphics edition 2019, reprinting material from Gladstone's Uncle Scrooge Comics from the 90s)   I became a big Uncle Scrooge fan watching Duck Tales when home from university in the 90s, but I never really got any comics featuring Uncle Scrooge until much later. First sampled some Barks Ducks, then a few Rosa Ducks, but it wasn't until I came to the old classics forum and then here at CBR and read shaxper and others singing the praises of Rosa's Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck that this came onto my radar, and at that point, it was currently out of print, until Fantagraphics published the 2 volume Complete set in 2019 & 2020. I got the first volume and devoured it over the course of two days, loving every page of it. It is the complete saga of how Scrooge became the duck he is, while Vol. 2 tells some later stories Rosa added and interwoven into the narrative (I have since gotten but have yet to read volume 2). There is just so much to love about this book. It is pure fun adventure storytelling at its best. I just recently got a stack of Barks and Rosa Fantagraphics volumes out of my local library, and since reading this I have been picking up old Gladstones (single issues and albums) whenever I find them in the wild. It just reawakened my love of Disney Ducks. -M PS a hint for #1: The initials DC are involved, but not the publisher. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 27, 2020 11:54:39 GMT -5
I have been busy to the point of ridiculousness. So let's try to catch up. As if anyone cares.
Folk Lords - I've not even heard of this one. I'll have to look for it.
The Woods - This is one I keep meaning to get to but haven't.
The Last God: The Fellspire Chronicles Book One - Another one I've not heard of but will look in to.
The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage - I'll have to look for this. I like the creative team and loved O'Neil & Cowan's Question.
Gideon Falls - I read the first arc of Gideon Falls and liked it fairly well. But then I fell into a pretty serious reader's block and didn't follow up. Maybe some day.
Swamp Thing by Wein & Wrightson - This has been on my re-read list for a while, along with Moore's run. So many comics, so little time. Great book.
Once and Future - I'm pretty sure I read the first issue and wasn't enthralled enough to continue.
Ascender - I need to find time to read this.
Lazarus - I read the first arc or two when they came out in trades and then it kind of got lost in the shuffle. I like both creators so some day I'll find time for it.
Batman/The Spirit #1 - I read this when it came out, but likely not since. I love Darwyn Cooke so much. I should re-read this.
Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 - I'm completely unfamiliar with this.
Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower - Butler's work hit that spot after I stopped reading new SF and before I started up again. Lot of her work on my list. Some day.
Invisible Kingdom Vol. 1 - Another one with which I'm completely unfamiliar.
Metamorphosis Odyssey - It's been eons since I've read this. I'm not a huge Starlin fan overall but this was probably his best work. I'm due for a re-read.
Superman Smashes the Klan - Everyone knows how I feel about Superman. However, I actually kind of like super early Siegel & Shuster Social Justice Warrior Superman. So I may get around to reading this.
Elfquest - My reading of Elfquest has been very spotty. Another book I've always meant to read and never gotten around to.
Descender Vol. 1-6 - Another book by Lemire that I need to find time to read.
Manhunter by Archie Goodwin & Walt Simonson - I read this again semi-recently for my "Gone Too Soon" thread. It's a great feature and it was gone too soon.
Criminal #3-12 - Oh Man I love Criminal. And I love Brubaker and Phillips. Criminal would be very high on my list of favorite books of all time.
Planetary - I think that we can say that I LOVE this book. And I need to find time to continue my review threads.
H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness Vol. 1 adapted by Gou Tanabe - I've mentioned before that I like the idea of Lovecraft more than I like his actual writing. I'll have to see if I can find this.
The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Vol. 1 by Don Rosa - I am, needless to say, a big Duck fan. In theory I'd love to do a Rosa review thread when I finish Barks. I practice I may not live that long.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2020 16:40:40 GMT -5
And now the top spot, fanfare please... #1 the DC is none other than Darwyn Cooke and the top spot goes to... The Richard Stark's Parker adaptations by Darwyn Cooke (IDW, 2009-2013)     Man, I love these books. Darwyn Cooke is simply a master storyteller and these are virtuoso performances by him. I came into crime and mystery fiction rather late.I read a ton of Hardy Boys and Three Investigators as a kid, but once I got into sci-fi and fantasy I didn't read much at all until Brubaker's Criminal hit me smack in the face and I started exploring more. I still haven't read Stark's Parker novels, so Cooke's adaptations were my intro to the character and the world Stark fashioned. And what an introduction it is. Parker's character leaps off the pages and Cooke's command of visual narrative is stunning. The limited color palette on these just enhances the stark (pardon the pun) nature of Parker's world and just oozes that noir vibe. Reading these is an immersive experience. The story and visuals suck you in and transport you to that milieu and doesn't let you go until the ride is over. The first two volumes were rereads for me, but volumes 3 and 4 were first time reads, and I am sure I will be revisiting these again. I am not quite sure these supplant New Frontier as my favorite Cooke work, but they are damn close and if my appreciation of these continues to grow (as it did on the reread of the first two volumes), they could well overtake New Frontier in the years to come. -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 27, 2020 16:43:41 GMT -5
I want to be able to like that choice a thousand times. As I said before, I love Darwyn Cooke. And I dearly love the Parker novels. The two together are by far my favorite comics adaptation of any medium. I would have been happy to have Cooke do full blown adaptations of all the novels.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2020 17:02:03 GMT -5
And that's a wrap on this exercise. I enjoyed doing the overview, and I hope it brought some level of enjoyment to folks here, either introducing them to new potential reads or reminding them of old favorites, or even giving some a level of train wreck gawking while they ask WTF? How can he read that kind of stuff...I'm never letting him on my lawn!
I was glad to be able to talk about comics I loved rather than stuff that didn't resonate with mo for whatever reason. For the really curious, folks can compare my list of stuff read over course of the 2nd half of 2019 and first half of 2020 in the Classic Comics Reading Club threads to see what got read and didn't make the list.
The stuff that was the hardest to leave off was stuff that isn't complete yet as they are current and are a bit into their lifespan but haven't paid off yet. I chose a couple towards the bottom of the list on potential alone, but there wasn't enough room to give a shout out to all of those types of series, so in particular Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans Die and the Hill House minis got left off because all of them were more than couple issues in but hadn't reached any kind of pay off yet. There were a couple of older runs that were very up and down, and I might have selected a single issue or story out of the run to include, but the context of the surrounding issues made reading the whole a bit more of a slog than I would have wanted. If you ask me to look over the list again in another 6 months, some of the entries could change place or drop off/get added on. It's just the nature of the beast, these kind of lists are, at best, snapshots of certain place and time.
-M
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