Dead tree comix - rants/raves/etc

For discussions, announcements, non-technical questions and anything else comics-related or otherwise that doesn't fit in any of the other categories.
User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Dead tree comix - rants/raves/etc

Post by Xmung »

i'm guessing a few people round here must read comic books or at least used to. i don't know if a thread like this ever existed on GD, i've looked back a bit but to no avail.
anyhoo... anyone care to share their fave books, series, latest issue, characters, most inspiring artist/writer or, forgoing all that most turgid piece of crud ever (think, the dark knight returns!).

i'll kick off :D

fables: this series by vertigo (dc) really caught me by surprise. i only picked it up after reading a review in the comics journal - and usually the journal pours crap on anything not remotely to their standards of aloofness - but this was a fairly positive review. fables sets fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters of long ago (eg. snow white, the big bad wolf, boy blue, pinocchio, king cole, dragons, goblins... you name it) in a contemporary new york setting as they take refuge from wars in their fable homelands. sounded way dodgy to me, but it only took one issue to totally suck me in. well written, great art and completely well conceived. have bought a number of the trade paper backs to catch up on the back story.

***

got a few others - some are indie titles and artists (dan clowes, joe sacco - anyone?) and others are total fan fare (... bats! :oops: ). but i'll save them for later! i'm not into manga but i'm sure someone else might be able to enlighten me. or if not books, newspaper strip? we don't get much - certainly nothing or quality - in australia so it'd be good to hear what other dead tree goodness there is out there.

all opinions are the author's... and need not result in their fave title being offhandedly branded total shite by someone else juz cuz they hate it - try and at least say why it's total shite!
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
Faub
The Establishment (Moderator)
The Establishment (Moderator)
Posts: 3698
Joined: Tue May 20, 2003 2:53 pm
Location: Missouri, USA
Contact:

Post by Faub »

Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
Poetry, music, good art, good story, strong characters, happy, sad, everything. This is a comic worth aspiring to.

Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura
Yet another wandering samurai in feudal Japan? Nope. The artwork is spectacular and short of including the man who can't die (hence the "Immortal") it's a trippy ride through the brutality of human nature in the worst of times. Certainly this is an above average revenge story.

Gloomcookie by Serena Velentino and Harley Sparx
It's just Goth. It's not a deranged the Maxx style goth. It's more of a Vampire the Masquerade LARP goth without the rock-paper-scissors.

Hopeless Savages by Jen Van Meter, Christine Norrie and Ross Campbell.
How do you describe Hopeless Savages? It's Buckaroo Banzai without the aliens but Buckaroo married and has 5(?) kids now.

User avatar
David Stripe
Regular Poster
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 1999 4:00 pm
Location: Bristol, Virginia United States of America
Contact:

Post by David Stripe »

faub wrote:Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
Poetry, music, good art, good story, strong characters, happy, sad, everything. This is a comic worth aspiring to.
Hear, hear.

Also worth aspiring to, in my opinion:

The Book of Ballads and Sagas - illustrated by Charles Vess with multiple authors. An absolutely gorgeous mini-series (as is anything drawn by Vess) that featured new stories based on traditional Scottish, Irish, and English ballads. Some of the works were straightforward translations, while others took the work in a completely new direction. A personal favorite from late in the run - "Twa Corbies," written by Charles deLint. Vess also illustrated several issues of Sandman and painted the entire run of the Neil Gaiman miniseries Stardust.
Image

User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Post by Xmung »

David Stripe wrote:Vess also illustrated several issues of Sandman and painted the entire run of the Neil Gaiman miniseries Stardust.
... and the rose three parter written by jeff smith (writer and creator of bone... another highly enjoyable comic!)
faub wrote:How do you describe Hopeless Savages?
it's great, although i sometimes find the narrative a little hard to follow until it gets into full swing (ground zero for eg)... but yeah, it's also a bit like a comic version of the osbornes without being quite so psychopathic and utterly drug addled! :)
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
DEVO-Bot
Regular Poster
Posts: 873
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2003 1:41 pm
Location: College, CA
Contact:

Post by DEVO-Bot »

Stupid, STUPID rat creatures!

Oh man! I was all about Bone in, like, 10th grade. What a great comic!
<KensouX> DEVO-Bot spouts out the mad phrases, tweekin' your brain harder than 35 cocaine cases.
Image

Now Alive Again

User avatar
Yeahduff
Resident Stoic (Moderator)
Posts: 9158
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:16 pm
Location: I jumped into your grave and died.
Contact:

Post by Yeahduff »

I Feel Sick- Jhonen Vasquez- Slave Labor Graphics- Artist struggles through an artist block and the possibility she's going insane. Her best friend tries to get her out in the world to experience things, but in the end, it's decided that all you need is your work and an empty space to do it. Add soul eating demons and assraping at the hands of corporate America and you have an overall good time. Dark and funny in a vaguely anime style.

Eightball- Daniel Clowes- Fantagraphics- Collection of short stories and random crap. Moody, cynical, self-depricating, and hilarious. Ghost World is one of my favorite stories about teenagers, and About Sports is one the most perverse and insightful things I've ever experienced. Great muted art style.

I've recently gotten into Robert Crumb. Amazing. Strong counterculture figure from the sixties, drawing bizarre cartoony images of sex, drugs and general subversion. The art is amazingly detailed. I'd kill to cross-hatch like him. The most distinct cartoonist I've ever seen, particularly when he draws a female. Known specifically for Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, and American Splendor, among others. There's a whole eighteen book anthology published by Fantagraphics.
Image
I won't be the stars in your dark night.

User avatar
Sortelli
Cartoon Villain
Posts: 6334
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:15 pm
Location: in your grandpa's clothes, I look incredible
Contact:

Post by Sortelli »

To go mainstream for the most turgid peice of crap ever, The New Xmen has become a festering boil of pus that I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate. A promising new character turns out to be the previously dead Magneto despite all past condratictions of this possibility, Magneto takes over New York between comics and then gets his head cut off at the very end. IN A MERE FIVE ISSUES. It is poop. POOP!

Edit: Oh, and by the way, Wolverine found out about his past in there too. And then Jean turned into the Phoenix and died.

User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Post by Xmung »

Sortelli wrote:And then Jean turned into the Phoenix and died.
again? that trick never works!

i actually got excited about the x-men again after the first movie and picked up a few issues (after many years of refusing to touch the stuff) but soon discovered it was generally worse than the same old same old. sounds like i'm glad i saved my money by spending it elsewhere...

... like on dan clowes stuff! gotta agree hugely with you yeahduff. clowes (like a lot of indies that hit the scene at the same time) has an utterly bleak view of humanity. i came into his work pretty much after the end of eightball, so have a number of his trades instead. ghostworld was just awesome - he so totally understood his characters... alienation done perfectly. i was a bit annoyed that the movie (while good) strayed so far from the comic. (although i liked how little scenes and characters from his other comics filtered into the story... that's what happens when the comic creator gets to write the screenplay!) but for sheer excellence i reckon eightball #22 takes a lot of beating. Fantagraphic describes it:
Twenty-seven vaguely inter-related stories rannging in length from 1 to 3 pages, drawn in a variety of different styles, featuring various all-new characters (an angry bachelor, a love-sick teenager, an over-sensitive 10-year-old, a comic-book critic, a husband and wife detective team, a depressed caveman, etc.) as they cross paths in a small midwestern town.
if i can ever create a comic like that i'll die a happy xmung!
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
Ramshackle
Newbie
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:10 am
Location: New England
Contact:

Post by Ramshackle »

Gold Digger by Fred Perry - Nicely draw and written with a good mix of adventure & humor. Yeah, it looks like "Tomb Raider", but he came up with it long before the game.

Most anything from Antarctic Press and Radio Comics is pretty good if you're tired of the typical super hero stories.

A couple of recent DC Comics mini series were great reads - "Empire" where the bad guy in armor gets to "win" (if you can call it that), and "Superman: Red Son" (now collected in one book) where Superman is imagined as a Soviet super hero. The latter is the best with a twisty ending!

Astro City and most of the DC "Elseworld" MiniSeries are pretty good too.

I gave up on X-Men when they came out with 5 different issues each WEEK for cryin out loud! In fact, I don't get many Marvel comics at all when I'm at ye olde comic shop.
Just another place to vacation on the web

User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Post by Xmung »

the one thing about most independant, alternative and/or underground cartoonists is that they are frequently the writer and artist (including letterer). often as not they are also their own book designer (at least in the early stages of their career). this is opposed to the large publishers like marvel, dc, etc who have someone to write, someone to pencil, someone to ink, letter, colour, edit, etc, etc. all this more or less reflects most closely what we do here on keen. there are very few keenspace comics that are produced as a result of collaboration. my point is that people who do the whole process themselves are cartoonists, as opposed to say, just an artist or just a writer (and i don't mean 'just' as any kind of put down).
cartoonists can bring their whole vision to their comic (well, providing they have the skill to do so... but that's usually just a process of sticking to it). of course this slows down the process, indie cartoonists get ragged for the fact they produce considerably less content than their marvel, dc counterparts (in the same way we might rag ourselves for missing am update) - often many months, even years pass between their publications. indie cartoonists don't get a lot of money from their ventures (unless they've 'made it', years and years later). peter bagge, dan clowes, dave cooper, joe sacco, robert crumb, adrian tomine, et al have made a name for themselves, but they still aren't producing much new stuff (or if they are , it's not in a solo cartoonist capacity) - mores the pity.
anyway - this was just a rave. we've already covered dan clowes and robert crumb a bit in this thread... and, unless someone else does, i might look at some of the others at some other time.
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
McDuffies
Bob was here (Moderator)
Bob was here (Moderator)
Posts: 29957
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 1999 4:00 pm
Location: Serbia
Contact:

Post by McDuffies »

Let's see.

Corto Maltese could be the best comic of all times. Beautifully drawn (although it might seem sloppy at first), lirically written... I didn't see a bed episode. It's a comic that looks better in b/w than colored.
Valerian, origins of flying taxi from "Fifth element". Designs of space stations and ships, then that astounding light/shadow contrast he's got going. Stories might not always be at the level, but some of them are still real jewels, like "the ambasador of shadows". He's best when goes politically.
A search for time bird, translated here as "warriors from Akbar". Only four episodes, which is good because I always see them as parts of the whole. Knocking on fantasy stereotipes but leaving their dignity untouched. The most playfull art style you've ever seen. They started making new episodes later, but it's really not the same.
Dream of a monster by Bilal. Art: You have to see it to believe it. It's continue, published last year, although artistically on level, had a tad bit weaker script so I didn't like it that much. Coulda go as well without it, IMO.
Gaston; coreography, if it's a possible thing in comics. Also, a biographical story of all of us, or at least majority.
Blueberry not always as good as his reputation, but you have to see cartain episodes to understand why French claims Moebius is the greatest of them all.
Alan Ford sadly unaprecciated social spy-story parody. Also known as "TNT".
Poposhak and flowers (published under the names like "where is daddie" and such). Story about war childhood without ever even mentioning war.
Bone to be fair and mention at least one american. It is one of my faves still. Most of new world comics I like are daily comics (or were once).

Curently reading: Grunge genetics by Bayeto/Zalozabal. Purchased it today, looks good. Charm would love it (it's got a lot of big-booby women :wink: )
Edit: Read it. Very confusing. Gotta read it again.

User avatar
Warren
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 8173
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2002 3:08 pm
Location: Armadilloland
Contact:

Post by Warren »

I used to read a lot of Tintin as a boy!
Warren
Image
Comics. Drawn poorly.

------------------------------
It's grey, not gray. And it always has been.
Lauren's Wing - The fund for animal care

User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Post by Xmung »

Warren wrote:I used to read a lot of Tintin as a boy!
me too! tintin and asterix. i never really appreciated the detail herge used to put into tintin until many years later when i bought some copies for old time sake. he sure knew his way around a drawing board. and speaking of european comics (as was mcduffies, and of course both tintin and asterix are also) - one thing i find different about them is the tendency for there to be lots and lots of talking. and the art is a lot more sequential than u.s. comics. but yeah, lots of talking - i don't know if it's a translation thing or what but some of those characters go on and on about everything they're doing and thinking. a lot of u.s. comics seem to have gone the other way. the art in european comics is often glorious!
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
McDuffies
Bob was here (Moderator)
Bob was here (Moderator)
Posts: 29957
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 1999 4:00 pm
Location: Serbia
Contact:

Post by McDuffies »

I loved Asterix when I was a kid. Now, I merely hate it.
With Tintin, it's oposite.

User avatar
Mr.Bob
:(
:(
Posts: 6895
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2003 4:12 am
Location: A box
Contact:

Post by Mr.Bob »

Warren wrote:I used to read a lot of Tintin as a boy!
Now we're right up my alley!
As an owner of the enitre Tintin and Asterix book collection since age 8 (including several of the pocket books with the lesser known shorter strips), they have been the equivalent of bibles to me! My love also extends to other similar Belgian comics who never really made it as big elsewhere - such as Lucky Luke, De Blauwbloezen, Spirou and Guust. (However I do not own the entire collections of these :( )

Anyway, does anyone here read orheard of any of Bilal's work?

ZOMBIE USER 17021
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1186
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 2:26 am

Um . . .

Post by ZOMBIE USER 17021 »

Tank Girl.




Other than Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County . . . Tank Girl. And only Tank Girl 3 . . . sadly. Found it in someone's basement (they have no idea where it came from).

User avatar
Xmung
Cartoon Hero
Posts: 1172
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: Sydney, Oz
Contact:

Post by Xmung »

yeah i've got a tank girl trade paper back collecting a heap of them. crazy fun stuff - and in terms of agro chicks fighting against the system much more enjoyable than 'grrrl scouts' by jim mahfood (which to me is a stinking pile of puke - i think the level of mayhem and violence and lack of morals was about the same, but i really hated somethin' about mahfood's attitude. bought it for the art only). there was a tank girl movie many years ago - ever catch that?
on another front - i hear joss whedon will be doing a writing stint on new x-men... i'm hugely cynical of the guest writer concept, and am an anti-fan of the x books... but but but... arrgh, i'm torn!
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves!
Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!

User avatar
VileTerror
Anti-Villain
Posts: 3437
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2003 11:16 am
Location: n. 1 a place where something is located. 2 the action of location. - DERIVATIVES locational adj.
Contact:

Nugh . . .

Post by VileTerror »

The Tank Girl movie was interesting, but no where near as good as the comic.

They made Booga a drooling moron! That was unfair.
Haughty spirit and pride make for a wild roller coaster ride!
I mean, as long as you like fairly final endings.

User avatar
Mr Ekshin
Regular Poster
Posts: 735
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:28 am
Location: Back against a wall with an apple on my head.
Contact:

Post by Mr Ekshin »

Used to read Zap comix and Freak Brothers as a kid. Stuff by Crumb was always great. I still have nightmares about some of the stuff I used to read, and someday may have to address the topic of intergalactic, non-anthropomorphic inter-species sex to finally get over it. Really.

I went through an Eerie comics phase. Later I really liked Slow Death. Some of it still freaks me out. Got into Heavy Metal for a while. I have all but one of the original Epic illustrated run. Some original TMNT, lots of old independants (Love and Rockets, etc). The watchmen and Hellblazer were the only DC titles that I ever got, and sadly missed out on the whole Sandman thing. Got some Japanese copies of anime that I can only look at.

Sin City and Hellboy are the latest things I've read. They make me happy. Other than that I don't read comix in print any more. Discovering it on the web has changed my whole mode. Glad to find it here. Wish I would have known sooner.
Judge dredge.

User avatar
KittyKatBlack
Cartoon Villain
Posts: 3182
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:56 pm
Location: How the hell should I know? I just live here...
Contact:

Post by KittyKatBlack »

I never got into comics, mainly cause all of them had the same thing on the cover. It's generally at the top. On the right. Starts with a $. Yeah. That's pretty much what kept me out of the comic loop. There's a few I really wanted to read though. Like I wanted to get into SCUD, but I couldn't find any place that really sold them. Plus, when I did get money I generally spent it on my first passion, which was video games. I did like Calvin and Hobbes though. I think it was one of my favorite comic strips. Well, my favorite one period. I did also like Garfield though.

Post Reply