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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 6, 2018 9:53:32 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #100Black Panther's from Africa. Storm is from Africa. Did they ever meet and perhaps have a brief romance in their youth? Of course! It's a small continent . I love that comment! It ranks second on my list of "Amazing Geographical Awareness by Comic Book Writers". Rank 1 is still Chris Claremont's X-Treme X-Men: Charles Xavier, with a broken back, manages to crawl from Tibet to Afghanistan (or Chris thinks both countries are the same country).
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 5, 2018 7:37:02 GMT -5
So a quick and short review of things in the Image Humble Bundle (skipping things I already before or didn't even bother to download (hello, Spawn Origins):
- Bitch Planet Triple Feature: set in the same universe as the series, it's a collection of short stories. If you're into Bitch Planet the series, it's interesting but not required. Quality of the stories themselves ranges a lot. There were some good ones, there were some bad ones. Not a place to start if you're not reading the regular series.
- Citizen Jack: Snowblower salesman and failed mayor Jack is convinced by the devil (or a devil at least) to run as president of the USA. I'm reminded of Marvel's Vote Loki series, another satire that was undercut by the circus that the actual elections were. It's not bad, but it was dated the moment it came out.
- Crosswind: Gail Simone does Freaky Friday where a mob assassin and a housewife switch bodies. Concept is promising, but I hate the art.
- Cursewords: I liked this one a lot. Wizord, an extradimensional sorcerer, comes to Earth to sacrifice it in name of his dimension's overlord, but is seduced by the way people on Earth live in freedom. It has a few plottwists in it and the twist at the end of the first volume made sure that I will check up volume 2.
- Elsewhere: This one did nothing for me. Amelia Earhart arrives in a fantasy land after disappearing from Earth. Human from Earth arrives in fantasy world is something I've seen done before so many times. The slight twist of using historical figures doesn't make it more interesting to me.
- Extremity: Set in a wartorn sci-fi future, the series is about a woman who was once an artist, but lost her hand in the war. In the afterword the creator talks about how, as an artist, losing his drawing hand is one of his worst nightmares. It's a good concept, but I was not drawn into the first issue.
- Gasolina: A series about the drugswars in Mexico, main characters being a former assassin who fell in love with a doctor. A concept seen before, except usually the assassin is male and the doctor female, this time it's the other way around. There is some horror element to it, that is not developed much in the first issue, but I enjoyed the first issue a lot and will probably get the trades.
- God Country: Emmett Quinn is dying from advanced Alzheimer's, but is cured of its effects when he is sought out by a magic sword (but only as long as he holds it). The gods that created the sword come to Earth to get it back, but Emmett is not willing to give up his last chance to be with his family. It's a short series, the first volume is the complete story. It's very good story and I love the art and designs. It kinda fits together with Aaron's run on Thor that deals with similar themes. Highly recommended.
- I Kill Giants: A bit older than most of the other works in this bundle and probably more reknown (Eisner nominee, winner of multipe other awards), probably included in this bundle because its movie adaption will be released this year. The story of a young girl that hunts and kills giants in her free time, but are they real or just a way for her to escape the realities of her life? Also highly recommended, quite a bit more indy in style and scope than God Country.
Rest will follow once I get around to them.
Not in the bundle, but recently read: Ice Cream Man, a horror comic published by Image. The first issue is a bit too busy for my taste for a horror comic, I want a bit more build up before all these things are happening and there are too many things happening at once.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 3, 2018 8:49:12 GMT -5
So another set of comics:
I went to Belgium and picked up a few issues of Freak's Squeele by Florent Maudoux. It's a mixture of European style with strong manga influences and a bit of American comic influences. I liked it a lot, it was very funny with expressive art, so I looked if it ever got a dutch translation (or english one), cause my french is pretty bad and I'm sure I was missing a lot of jokes and puns.
Turns out there is a dutch translation (no english one that I'm aware off.) and it's a prime example of how bad Dark Dragon (dutch publisher) is at marketing. The french covers have the various weird characters on the cover in poses that imply that they're in over their heads with a white background to get the focus on the weird and wacky characters. The dutch covers are dark, serious and mostly static... I saw them before and they looked so boring that I never even paid attention to the title. (I'm sure that there are more series that I passed for the same reason.)
Anyway, the dutch version ended 2 issues in (Dark Dragon turned 1 french comic into 2 dutch ones, cause one of the manga inspirations is that the issues are long 100-150 pages switching between coloured and black&white at set intervals), cause of course it does if you mess up your covers that badly. Luckily Germany did publish the whole series in translation.
Other titles:
Lanfeust Oddysey #9: Feels like it's spinning its wheels at this point; the last issue the big bad of this cycle was mostly defeated, her armies scattered and most of her power gone. She makes a desperate move here that makes her a threat again (though probably not in a way she wanted to), so it's a bit back to the start again. It does have a thing that I really liked though: During his absence, Lanfeust has become a focus of worship by some groups of people. Their worship created an actual god (the way things work on Troy) and now Lanfeust the god is at odds with Lanfeust the human, because the god feels that Lanfeust is an imposter (even if he came first). The god is not completely without reason, because the worshippers that actually meet the real Lanfeust are inspired by him and the power of their worship starts to go to the real Lanfeust instead of the image they had of him.
Detectives #1: Miss Crumble: Set shortly after WWI, retired teacher Miss Crumble investigates a murder. It's a series of oneshots each starring a different detective. I haven't finished it yet, but so far it's charming. Not far enough in to judge how good the mystery itself is.
Skipped: Marc Legendre's second issue of Spirou. Probably the first Spirou I ever skipped, but the first issue did nothing for me. It was not offensive, but it was safe and boring.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 28, 2018 4:52:30 GMT -5
Sadly same issues as with many other remakes of old RPGs for PC seem to plague Steam's release of Chrono Trigger. A shame as it is one of the greatest games ever, but they used an iOS port.
Just finished up a Lords of the Fallen after starting it years ago, but not getting far into it. It's a Dark Souls-like game, but different enough to not be a complete copy. Overall not a bad game, but a lot of missed opportunities and if you don't go exploring for scrolls, most of the backstory will be lost on you (including an endboss that comes out of nowhere unless you went back to certain places later in the game). Also the intro movie has nothing to do with the game proper so that is quite confusing.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 26, 2018 7:37:31 GMT -5
You are on of the few then who has not fallen to the power of curling.
My favourite bit was the short track skating finale 3000m: Dutch team didn't make it into the final, so was in the race for places 5-8. During that race, they set a new world record. In the final, 2 out of the 4 teams were disqualified, so they are now Bronze medal winners *and* world record holders.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 24, 2018 17:03:55 GMT -5
For those who are not reading modern comics, Black Panther annual #1, on sale this week, contains 3 new Black Panther stories, including a story by Don McGregor about T'Challa and Monica Lynne (it's an alternate history story, but I thought it was pretty good). I don't think this was the direction McGregor was going for at the time though, so don't see it as the missing piece of his original run.
(The other two stories are by Christopher Priest and by Reginald Hudlin, both tying into their own runs of Black Panther, though Priest's story is the only one that takes place during Coates' current run, even if it deals with characters from Priest's run.)
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 24, 2018 16:58:57 GMT -5
Black Panther Annual #1.
This one will be also interesting for classic comics fan: it contains 3 stories, none of them by the current creative team, but all by previous Black Panther writers:
"Back In Black" Written by Christopher Priest. Art by Mike Perkins. Colours by Andy Troy.
Summary: Set in the Present, but very much steeped in Priest's run. The story revolves around Everett Ross, Black Panther's former contact with the US government. Ross has been promoted and hasn't seen T'Challa in years, but is dragged back into Wakanda-US politics. T'Challa is now the king of a constitutional monarchy and the government has decided to share a piece of technology with the US, but T'Challa fears that the technology may be abused. When the handover goes wrong, T'Challa is one of the suspects.
I'm a fan of Priest's run, so I'm always happy to see more of it. The disappearance of the technology is a side-matter, the meat of the story is the relationship between T'Challa and Ross.
"Panther's Heart" Written by Don McGregor. Art by Daniel Acuna. Dedicated to Rich Buckler and Billy Graham
Plot: Set in an alternate past, T'Challa climbs the mountains of Wakanda to find the heart-shaped herb, but it's a way to deal with the death of Monica Lynne. The story is about T'Challa's relationship with Monica and how this relationship affected those around them.
As far as I know Monica didn't die in the regular Black Panther series, so an alternate past it is. It's good to see McGregor back again and even if this is a more somber story, I enjoyed it a lot, showing T'Challa not as hero or as king, but as a human being having to deal with loss and finding comfort with friends and family.
"Black To the Future Part II" Written by Reginald Hudlin. Art by Ken Lashley. Colours by Matt Milla.
Plot: In the future, T'Challa tells his granddaughter about Wakanda's rise out of isolation and their war with various threats.
The story in the annual I didn't like. I never liked Hudlin's run of Black Panther to begin with, but the story reads like a history book "this happened, this happened, then that happened." without giving weight to any of the events.
8/10 (I really liked the first 2 stories, so those outweigh the lesser third story).
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 22, 2018 11:14:04 GMT -5
Matt Wagner is my go to.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 22, 2018 11:05:33 GMT -5
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 20, 2018 9:18:11 GMT -5
ALso enjoying Maestros, I'd expect there will be more, but in case of Image they quite often do a season-type of publication instead of every month a release. Image comics make most of their sales in trade form, so I would not expect a cancelation until the first trade comes out (though there have been exceptions. Poor Switch.)
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 17, 2018 16:08:48 GMT -5
Saw it this morning and enjoyed it a lot. Definitely more serious than most Marvel movies. It takes a lot from Christopher Priest's run, not much of Coates so far (but then again Coates run would not make sense for a first movie). M'Baku is far better than he ever was in the comics to me. Killmonger is among the better Marvel villains with an understandable motivation. Ross is not played for comic relief. Shuri: I'm loving her in the current comics, so kinda disappointed that she is very different from that, but I still enoyed her role.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 15, 2018 11:51:40 GMT -5
Non-American stuff, I have to think hard to bring it back to 10. I'm back into manga and got some of my backlog on European stuff (especially with stuff taking some time to get in translation over here, so titles I'd name could have been out in France or Belgium for months to years now). The Wildstorm is made for me, so I fully get nobody else being interested in it. I think the writing on Seven to Eternity is quite good, especially the worldbuilding, but it needs to move along now and go deeper into the characters if it should be on this list next year. Comics are comics, whether they are from the US, Japan or France, why compartementize? I had a weekly FM radioshow for almost 20 years. It was a music show, and I took wover it after as the third generation host. It started out in the 80ies as a rock/punk rock show. Over time, it grew an interest in electronic music, rap, etc... But it kept genres compartementized. When I was alone in charge, I changed that, mixed everything as much as possible, as i realized that sections of my audience waited for the part that covered the style they were into and left when it was over. As a music lover, that was extremely disheartening, hence the change, and an audience that was at first resistant, but in the end better for it, more open minded a therfore richer. The Wildstorm also seems custom made for me, just not the price point. But don't worry about publication dates of Euro stuff : if you enjoyed it in its anglo saxon edition and it's more or less 5 years old, by all means share The compartementizing was mostly for the other forum I was on, the rest of the people are Americans/into American comics, so listing a bunch of non-American comics would be pretty much useless as the rest of the thread would not have access to it. Also, thanks to Previews website, I have a better list of when I bought what compared to European stuff which just comes out whenever. Anyway, I have to be home to make a list. I know Kolk's Spirou is definitely on the list (googling... there was a live-action Petite Spirou movie last year? Doesn't look good, but still... why haven't seen anything about it on any website). Cognac probably. Part 4 of Les Vieux Fourneaux. Hibakusha definitely.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 15, 2018 10:56:03 GMT -5
Non-American stuff, I have to think hard to bring it back to 10. I'm back into manga and got some of my backlog on European stuff (especially with stuff taking some time to get in translation over here, so titles I'd name could have been out in France or Belgium for months to years now).
The Wildstorm is made for me, so I fully get nobody else being interested in it.
I think the writing on Seven to Eternity is quite good, especially the worldbuilding, but it needs to move along now and go deeper into the characters if it should be on this list next year.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 15, 2018 9:20:16 GMT -5
Cross-posted from another board: Here's a mixed list of my 2017 comics (not including non-American comics) in no particular order. (Some are 2016 comics that released in trade in 2017) Doom Patrol (DC comics) Everything I liked about Morrison’s Doom Patrol minus everything I disliked about Morrison’s Doom Patrol and with better art. Flintstones (DC comics) Take a 50s comedy, turn it into a 60s cartoon by adding dinosaurs and puns, leave it overnight for 50 years, add some social satire, reheat with some genuine human warmth. Best served with a nice dark whiskey. Descender (Image Comics) Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s story of a little robot boy who may hold the key to finally end the war between humans and robots. Beautifully illustrated by Nguyen. Started 2 years ago, but it keeps getting better and better. Black Monday Murders (Image Comics) Technically came out in 2016, but I’m reading this in trades, so 2017 it is for me. For the ones among us who have been missing Hickman’s spreadsheets, tables and graphs. (Also contains generations of hermetic mages controlling the global economy at high risks to themselves.) Black Panther (Marvel Comics) This post started out as a Top10 of Marvel comics of 2017 (with similar lists for Image and DC), but I had a lot to say about Black Panther and little about most other titles, even the ones I loved as much (Hawkeye, The Ultimates, the entry below this one) Black Panther started last year, but this year was when things really started rolling. My problem with Wakanda has always been the same as with Atlantis, Latveria and many other fictional countries; they usually are a bunch of stereotypes with a single gimmick and never feel like a real country. Priest tried to change this a little, but Coates is doing some real worldbuilding here. Most advanced nation in the world and isolationist don’t go together as history has shown again and again. The man who meditates at the top of a mountain for 10 year to find the meaning of life, will find that he was better served by finding another human being to exchange ideas with. So Wakanda is highly advanced and appears to be isolationist, but that advancement came at a cost to neighbouring nations and Wakanda’s traditions are not as immutable as the Wakandan conservatives pretend it is. This is the lesson T’Challa learns (with some help from his sister): study the past, learn its lessons, but don’t be beholden to it. Moon Knight (Marvel Comics) 2017 saw Jeff Lemire’s run on Moon Knight wrapping up. Supported by a veritable army of top-rated artists (first and foremost Greg Smallwood), this run was the opposite of Warren Ellis’ run of standalone issues: one long story about Marc Spector and his many alter egos. The art was my main draw, but there is so much more here. A new Moon Knight series has come out since then, but I haven't read it, the style and solicit didn't speak to me. Sunstone (Image Comics) Another series wrapped up. Stjepan Sejic’s part romance, part comedy, part erotica, part drama about two women finding each other through bondage. This series just clicked with me on a level few other comics ever done. The characters all act like human beings, flawed in many ways, but their flaws make them only more endearing to me. Over 4 graphic novels Lisa and Ally have grown together and apart, will there be a happy ever after? (Well the series is told by Lisa in flashback, so that question is answered in the first 3 pages of the first GN.) No superheroes here, no villains either. No conquering aliens and killer robots. The only dragons and mages are in the MMORPG Ally plays. The real villains are fear and distrust. Can’t wait for Mercy. The Wildstorm (DC Comics) I’m a big, big fan of late 90s/early 2000s Wildstorm. Ellis, Casey, Brubaker and others turned a military obsessed superhero universe into a post-superhero universe. So Ellis revived the universe I loved while recreating it. At the center is an uneasy truce between Internation Operations (spies and BlackOps, controlling the world from the shadows) and Skywatch (space exploration and supertechnology, looking down on Earth and looking to expand into the universe). In the middle there are the ones they don’t know about. The aliens and the special beings. Familiar faces at different places, familiar names with new faces. It’s a big puzzle and I really enjoy figuring out where all the pieces fit. Seven to Eternity (Image Comics) It’s on a break now (back in Spring), but Remender and Opeña have created a fantasy universe that reminds me for some reason of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I want to state the premise, but the status quo seems to change every single issue so far. A weird and beautiful world and we’re dropped in the middle of it. Mage: The Hero Denied (Image Comics) (this feels weird, I want to say Comico even though it's been 30 years) I’ve been waiting for years for this, maybe even decades. Matt Wagner’s Kevin Matchstick is in many ways Wagner himself, each series a phase in Wagner’s life told as a mythical battle between good and evil. After finding himself and finding love, in the final chapter of Mage, Kevin now has to leave his family to protect them, while the evil forces he has fought before have reformed. I hope Wagner sticks the landing (the title promises nothing but DOOOOM), but I’m happy to get this series anyway.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 12, 2018 15:59:45 GMT -5
So apparently some commentator on NBC said that the Dutch were so good at speedskating because it was the common means of transport in Amsterdam. Which is just... really? Anyway seen a smithering of speed skating (is shown everywhere here, especially Sven Kramer going for his third gold on the 5000 meter), biathlon and curling (aka known as the most insidious sport to be drawn into when zapping past it). Well, yeah; Hans Brinker is everyday life in the Netherlands, right? You know, I actually had to google who that was. Not that reknown piece of literature over here.
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