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Post by hondobrode on Dec 5, 2014 15:35:19 GMT -5
Comixology just had a Savage Dragon sale, but alas, I'd blown my budget with Dark Horse's Cyber Monday sale already. I was always on the fence about Dragon, but have gotten more and more interested and love the fact it's Larsen owned and driven and he shakes things up. Flaming Carrot is another great pick I'd long forgotten about. How about these guys ?  |
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 5, 2014 22:29:41 GMT -5
How about these guys ? "Gin makes a man mean!" |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 5, 2014 22:55:31 GMT -5
One of the few comics all my brothers enjoy.
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 6, 2014 3:56:39 GMT -5
Paul Grist is one of those creators where I just can't fathom why he's not more popular. Yes, he has a quirky art and storytelling style... maybe he's just a little too idiosyncratic for the mainstream, and too mainstream for the indie guys. His series', the quirky cop drama 'Kane' and 'The Weird World of Jack Staff' which establishes a world of somewhat odd British Superheroes and adventurers. 'Jack Staff' rubs my braincells in exactly the right way, combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions in a way that really jangles my pleasure centres. Plus his minimalist art with its strong lines and heavy use of spot blacks and negative space is just gorgeous to look at. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/Jackstaffdep0.jpg/250px-Jackstaffdep0.jpg |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 4:03:20 GMT -5
I've read a bit of Jack Staff and quite liked it, and always wanted to try Kane, but never got around to it. I need to track those Jack Staff books down again at some point, and see about getting around to Kane finally, but there are so many things in my read o look into getting to read piles right now, I may never get to them all. -M  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 5:16:46 GMT -5
I've never been much of a character person. I love creator owned comics. Mostly because they tend to have little to no editorial interference, allow greater creativity, and provide consistent quality because the creative staff usually doesn't change. So good creators make comics I like. Many of them stick with a single series their entire career, so that one title would be one of my favorites. Often times though, if they move on to a new series, I'd like it just as much (but not always). So Usagi Yojimbo is one of my favorite comics, Stan Sakai could do an issue where Usagi is entirely absent and I'd like it just as much as the others I'm sure.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 5:27:35 GMT -5
I've never been much of a character person. I love creator owned comics. Mostly because they tend to have little to no editorial interference, allow greater creativity, and provide consistent quality because the creative staff usually doesn't change. So good creators make comics I like. Many of them stick with a single series their entire career, so that one title would be one of my favorites. Often times though, if they move on to a new series, I'd like it just as much (but not always). So Usagi Yojimbo is one of my favorite comics, Stan Sakai could do an issue where Usagi is entirely absent and I'd like it just as much as the others I'm sure. Did you try Sakai's 47 Ronin then? No Usagi there.... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 5:42:37 GMT -5
I've never been much of a character person. I love creator owned comics. Mostly because they tend to have little to no editorial interference, allow greater creativity, and provide consistent quality because the creative staff usually doesn't change. So good creators make comics I like. Many of them stick with a single series their entire career, so that one title would be one of my favorites. Often times though, if they move on to a new series, I'd like it just as much (but not always). So Usagi Yojimbo is one of my favorite comics, Stan Sakai could do an issue where Usagi is entirely absent and I'd like it just as much as the others I'm sure. Did you try Sakai's 47 Ronin then? No Usagi there.... -M Yeah I read those as they came out. Loved it. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 6, 2014 11:48:55 GMT -5
Paul Grist is one of those creators where I just can't fathom why he's not more popular. Yes, he has a quirky art and storytelling style... maybe he's just a little too idiosyncratic for the mainstream, and too mainstream for the indie guys. His series', the quirky cop drama 'Kane' and 'The Weird World of Jack Staff' which establishes a world of somewhat odd British Superheroes and adventurers. 'Jack Staff' rubs my braincells in exactly the right way, combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions in a way that really jangles my pleasure centres. Plus his minimalist art with its strong lines and heavy use of spot blacks and negative space is just gorgeous to look at. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/Jackstaffdep0.jpg/250px-Jackstaffdep0.jpgI remember the first time I encountered Grist's art and thought, "I could do this. A seven year old could do this." Eventually, I'd come to my senses and realize that he's an absolutely brilliant storyteller. I love pretty much everything he does, but my favorite project of his as writer/artist is Kane. A great hard-boiled cop book with its fair share of humor. I wish he'd return to it some day, but everything he does is worth reading. Possibly the most underrated talent in comics. |
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Post by berkley on Dec 6, 2014 18:35:51 GMT -5
Paul Grist is one of those creators where I just can't fathom why he's not more popular. Yes, he has a quirky art and storytelling style... maybe he's just a little too idiosyncratic for the mainstream, and too mainstream for the indie guys. His series', the quirky cop drama 'Kane' and 'The Weird World of Jack Staff' which establishes a world of somewhat odd British Superheroes and adventurers. 'Jack Staff' rubs my braincells in exactly the right way, combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions in a way that really jangles my pleasure centres. Plus his minimalist art with its strong lines and heavy use of spot blacks and negative space is just gorgeous to look at. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/Jackstaffdep0.jpg/250px-Jackstaffdep0.jpgI've wavered for a long time over buying a Jack Staff book - like the look of the art but can't tell enough about the writing at a glance to decide whether I want to take a chance on it. Your description once again pulls me in two directions: I like the sound of "combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions", but for me bringing superheroes into all that would spoil the mix. |
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 6, 2014 20:58:23 GMT -5
Paul Grist is one of those creators where I just can't fathom why he's not more popular. Yes, he has a quirky art and storytelling style... maybe he's just a little too idiosyncratic for the mainstream, and too mainstream for the indie guys. His series', the quirky cop drama 'Kane' and 'The Weird World of Jack Staff' which establishes a world of somewhat odd British Superheroes and adventurers. 'Jack Staff' rubs my braincells in exactly the right way, combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions in a way that really jangles my pleasure centres. Plus his minimalist art with its strong lines and heavy use of spot blacks and negative space is just gorgeous to look at. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/Jackstaffdep0.jpg/250px-Jackstaffdep0.jpgI've wavered for a long time over buying a Jack Staff book - like the look of the art but can't tell enough about the writing at a glance to decide whether I want to take a chance on it. Your description once again pulls me in two directions: I like the sound of "combining Wold Newtonesque world-building with 'Zenith'-like tributes to classic British comic book and strip characters, the quirky science adventures of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with the mod spy-fi of The Avengers or The Champions", but for me bringing superheroes into all that would spoil the mix. You'd think so, but he handles it with a really deft hand. It's a very British take on superheroes, somewhat low-key and a bit more self-aware of its own absurdity than typical American superhero comics. There are elements of Busiek's Astro City where you can be introduced to characters you've never seen before, but which the comic assumes you've known all along, and a focus that's very frequently fixed firmly on anything BUT what your typical superhero narrative would be looking at. Towards the end, he renamed the series 'The Weird World of Jack Staff' and that's extremely appropriate, as the series flicks between character viewpoints (often using flashbacks and flashforwards), and is far more concerned with its setting than any one character. Plus, the whole thing purposefully reads kind of like an old anthology series, with multiple ongoing plots and subplots involving different characters, but unlike those, the stories all intertwine. I will say that it reads MUCH better in trade than in single issues, where the plot can have the room it needs to develop. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 6, 2014 23:09:57 GMT -5
 Reid Fleming is a crude, ill tempered, rye swilling (he keeps a case of it with him in his milk truck), milkman who has destroyed somewhere between 9 and a million milk trucks in his career. A devoted fan of the daytime TV program The Horrors of Ivan, Reid prefers watching that to making his deliveries, when he does go on his route he spends most of it intimidating his customers “buy some milk or I pee on your flowers” or getting into random acts of extreme violence because someone has made fun of his milk truck, or commented on his thinning hair. The people in his life are his one friend Cooper an almost comatose fellow milkman, his girlfriend Lena, his boss Mr. O’clock, his supervisor and arch-enemy, the flat-headed Mr. Crabbe, and the strange and usually intimidated people on his milk route. Before Wolverine, before Lobo, before any other violence prone anti-hero in the comics there was David Boswell's Reid Fleming, the World’s Toughest Milkman. It was once being looked at back in the 90's as a film with no less than Jim Belushi. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 6, 2014 23:11:49 GMT -5
I've never been much of a character person. I love creator owned comics. Mostly because they tend to have little to no editorial interference, allow greater creativity, and provide consistent quality because the creative staff usually doesn't change. So good creators make comics I like. Many of them stick with a single series their entire career, so that one title would be one of my favorites. Often times though, if they move on to a new series, I'd like it just as much (but not always). So Usagi Yojimbo is one of my favorite comics, Stan Sakai could do an issue where Usagi is entirely absent and I'd like it just as much as the others I'm sure. I agree with you about loving creator-owned comics, and highlighting these oft times lesser known characters helps give more mainstream posters exposure to them. |
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