"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
0
Options
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited April 2012
General plot
-all babies born on a certain day got powers
-years later those kids riot, bringing the country to its knees
-in order to keep the peace, AGP is made to make the kids try out to be heroes in a yearly tournament
-so the kids are fighting and risking their lives for ratings, the less powerful one run the stadium
-this year they want to kill all the kids under the guise of upping the stakes in the game
-one of the kids who has no powers does amazing things and becomes the favorite to win, possibly change everything
Oh man, Stokoe art! I will have to feast on that for several months, I guess. That guy is probably my favorite artist in the history of comics, but man is he slow or does he just pick slow writers or is it both?
What are your plans for the series now, because after issue six, it just seemed like you were done and you disappeared. But, now that issue seven is out, it seems like your back on a regular schedule.
Well, I wouldn’t say that! I’m working on issue eight, but I don’t know that it’s going to be that regular until I’ve got the Godzilla books done, which is what I’ve got to concentrate on now. But, no, I’m going to keep going until it’s done. It’s definitely something I don’t want to leave half-done.
OK, because I had heard a rumour from a certain Seattle artist, who you know… he draws elephants —
Awww…
— that you had just ditched the series and Image were pissed-off at you.
Marley Zarcone: Don’t listen to anything that guy has to say ever! He’s a liar!
JS: Oh, Justin… he’s a habitual liar.
MZ: He’s such a liar. He’ll tell you that he was born in France in 1943. [Laughter]
JS: So, yeah — it might take a while, but it’s definitely something I want to finish.
What was causing the delays during your hiatus, then? Was other work coming your way? I know you have Godzilla coming up, and that your work is very detailed, so that must take time.
Yeah, it’s the money thing that’s the main thing. I couldn’t work on it because I wasn’t getting anything out of it, money-wise. Godzilla is something that I’ve wanted to do since I was five — and it’s paying me money, so it’s a double-bonus! But I keep working on Orc Stain... definitely once Godzilla is done, I’ll get back into it as much as I can.
Isn't that basically what caused some delay in Singles Club (I recall there being delays, anyway). Stokoe's an amazing artist, so I can only hope that monetary success comes to him sooner than later.
So, I picked up X-O Manowar #1, and it's not great. I guess the best thing I can say, is that it's very competent. The story opens on some good action, interesting stuff happens, and the story ends with the protagonist in an interesting place.
But, there's nothing that made me feel like I need to come back for the next issue. It's a very sullen, dour book, for one. The protagonist, Aric, doesn't really do anything to distinguish himself from the other, generic Visigoths he's surrounded by. There's no villains of note or interest.
Really, it reads like a Conan comic, except Conan's abducted by aliens half-way through the story, and spends the rest of the issue in chains.
This seems to be setup for the usual story of the protagonist proving himself, stealing his enemies' weapons, and wreaking holy havoc at home and abroad. But, I kind of want to get to that stuff now.
I feel like, if the structure of this story was re-ordered a bit, I'd like it a bit more. Save all the exposition for later. Just open on a medieval warrior in a suit of space-armor, annihilating Romans, and then reveal the events that led to those circumstances.
So, I picked up X-O Manowar #1, and it's not great. I guess the best thing I can say, is that it's very competent. The story opens on some good action, interesting stuff happens, and the story ends with the protagonist in an interesting place.
I bought it, too. I didn't even realize that it's not one of the Dark Horse reboots that Jim Shooter is heading up until I got it home - this is an actual Valiant comic. I don't really have anything good or bad to say about the first issue, but I'll keep reading the series. I do think Cary Nord is a brilliant choice for this book, though.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I finished reading Jim Henson's Tale of Sand, and I'm just confused.
It's beautifully illustrated, and it's got that soft touch of humor from the Muppets Show that is nice to see and maybe a few years ahead of it's time (though the constant reference to smoking and cigarettes might be a problem if it ever made it to the present screen), but it just kind of has no real end, and that was really disappointing. It really feels like that Simpsons episode with the chili cookoff (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer) only cranked up to 11, and there's this completely out of the blue nudity scene at the end that just seems superfluous.
It has very little dialogue in it, so I couldn't recommend it unless you could get the book for under 10 bucks, 15 might be pushing it.
So, this week I picked up Thief of Thieves #5, X-O Manowar #2, Harbinger #1, Mudman #4, and Creator-Owned Heroes #1.
Thief of Thieves is finally beginning to take shape, five issues in, which is really too long. Up until now, it's been focused on developing the main protagonist, Redmond, by examining the people around him, and delving into his past. This is the first issue to hint at the promised conceit of thieving from thieves. Spencer and Kirkman are writing a fun little crime caper, complete with a neat getting-the-band-together sequence, and Martinbrough's art is gorgeous as ever.
The plot really needs to get moving, and I wish this wasn't such a terribly transparent attempt to pitch a TV show by Kirkman, but I'm enjoying the ride so far.
X-O Manowar is a bit dry. That's the only way I know how to phrase it. The action, the dialogue, the art, the story all feel kind of antiseptic and boring, like Venditti and Nord are playing the whole concept way too seriously.
I mean, it's basically Conan the Barbarian, in a suit of power-armor, aided by soldiers from the greatest warrior civilizations of the world, and fighting to escape alien imprisonment. And it's just boring. I feel like in another creative team's hands, this concept could be a lot of fun, but these creators have failed to convince me they're the ones for the job.
Harbinger was an interesting first issue. I never read the old Valiant series, but this iteration is clearly cut from the same cloth as "realistic" superhero stories like the film Chronicle, or Push. There's a guy with powers, and he's on the run from a mysterious organization. Over the course of the story, he discovers there are others like him, and he's offered a chance to learn more about his powers.
It's very X-Men, I suppose. Where it diverges, is by having the protagonist immediately presented as an amoral, self-medicating shithead. He steals drugs and money from pharmacies, mind-wiping the pharmacists who give him grief. He squats in abandoned houses. He stalks a girl he once knew, and mind-whammies her into making out with him, and possibly sleeping with him. He's not a good guy, and he knows it. He also knows he's cracking up a little more by the day, as his life on the run takes its toll.
Most stories about amoral protagonists eventually show them repenting and getting on the straight and narrow, but I kind of hope this one doesn't, at least for a while. I've always thought it'd be nice to have an ongoing story about a supervillain, and Joshua Dysart's a creative enough writer to pull that off, and with Khari Evans drawing it, the story's sure to look pretty awesome.
Mudman continues to be a lot of fun. Paul Grist's little essays in the front are always interesting to read, as he opines on the nature of comics, and I'm really enjoying the kind of episodic format he's using with this series. It reminds me of Chew, in that each issue works as a story by itself, while still connecting into a larger plot.
Creator-Owned Heroes is a book with a really interesting format. For $3.99 you get twenty-two pages of comics, and sixteen pages of essays, reviews, cosplay photos, etc. Unfortunately, with two comics, each only eleven pages long, there's not much room to hook the reader, and the creators don't use the space they do have, particularly well.
The first four pages of one story, are dedicated to the exciting thrill of stopping a car with bad brakes, by shooting out its tire with a shotgun, while introducing the cast. Then there's a double-page splash a bit later, and a splash page at the end.
The other story uses its pages a bit better, but still spends a lot of time showing us how the heroine gets from A to B, rather than just starting us off at the more interesting B, and then rewinding later, once we're more invested in the character.
It doesn't help that the stories are really kind of boring. One's basically Mad Max meets The Hills Have Eyes, while the other is the usual brain-washed killing machine thing, I feel I've seen plenty of times before.
I'm going to hang with it for another issue, to see if the creators pull off some kind of interesting twist, but right now, I'm exactly crazy about it.
Incidentally, I got a copy of my current pull list, to review what I'm currently buying.
I'm currently pulling fifteen Image books, seven Marvel, one Valiant, and zero DC.
Some of those Image books are mini-series, but it's still kind of interesting, to see how my tastes are currently skewing.
I'm inclined to drop almost all the Marvel books, but I am only reading them as-is because of who writes and draws them (Even Captain Marvel). And I am still getting Shade as my one DC book even though I am a couple issues behind in reading them. I'd like to expand my indie books when I get settled in Oregon and finally get to go on another trade binge (I lost the list of indie titles I asked about the last time so I'll be asking again. I think I got most of them onto my Wish List, but ...). I still haven't gotten to read the issues of Prophet and Glory I bought a few weeks ago, but I'm guessing one or both will end up on my pull and trade list.
Crimsondude on
0
Options
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
It's two stories using the same art; one is Kristiansen's original story translated by Seagle, and the other is Seagle's story just going by the art alone, and not knowing the story. Seagle's always been an underrated guy who usually delivers streets ahead stuff and the book comes out next week.
Did I mention I bought the Coldest City OGN? It's a spy story set during the fall of the Berlin Wall when an outside British spy is sent to retrieve a list of everyone's undercover spies in Berlin—and must face both threats and the complacency of both sides' spies to being more committed to their insular community than the Great Game. I'm not doing it justice, and when I finish it I will post a review. But it is very much like LeCarré and Queen and Country if you're into that stuff.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Manhattan Projects #4 is so, so good, I get that happy feeling like back when New Invaders was still being published. Aliens! Einstein! Teddy Bears! Robot Presidents! I sometimes feel like in the industry, just because it's a comic there are absurd things just to be absurd and wacky where it really doesn't have a point, but just something about how this series is structured, and how it plays with the smartest men on earth and makes them involved in things that aren't possible, but does so without acting meta or winking to the reader, it just works here.
If this book doesn't win the Eisner next year, burn it all down.
0
Options
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Bloodshot #1 is a decent enough read, and not knowing the character until this issue, it's all laid out for you. It's a pretty violent book, and what it really reminds me of is Steven Seagle's Alpha Flight series, because the basic idea is that Bloodshot's a super soldier with nanites so he's a ninja tank, but he's brainwashed to have different families and memories to trigger the correct response for the upcoming mission. So it's something beyond the usual shady government story, at least so far. I'll give it a shot for the second issue.
The fact that their policy is to release a comic when it's done means not having to give a shit about pushing fans to pre-order, and that's one of the great things about digital first publishing. Hell, it's basically the webcomic model, but with an upfront payment. I imagine it takes a LOT of financial burden off the shoulders of both the creators and the publisher.
I've been reading a lot of the new Boom! books (pulling Higher Earth, Hypernaturals, and reading Extermination at work with plans to purchase it later in trade or digital), and man they are all fantastic.
And then The Massive is brilliant as well.
But I need to tell you guys how great Mind Mgmt by Matt Kindt is, over at Darkhorse. It is seriously the greatest thing! And the single issues are backed with backup strips and extra stories and in-universe advertisements and easter eggs and liner notes and a letters column and tons of other shit that they went out of the way to mention will not be any collections of the series.
It is weird and freaky and mind-bendy, and it is a trip and a pleasure to read as you have to parse it like a mystery in order to read it, with sets of clues coming from the various backups and tiny easter eggs tucked into issues that you have to go back and investigate each time a new one is out.
Also, the letters column has all been pros for the first couple issues, with Jeff Lemire writing in and Cullen Bunn saying that the first issue made him accidentally explode a cat with his latent powers.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Bros, bros,Harvest #1 is a pretty good book, bros.
The best way I can describe it is a cocky drug addicted surgeon screws up royally, and is kicked out of the profession, and gets tangled up in being a mob surgeon and moving on to organ harvesting. It's a completely original story and carries itself like a decent crime drama with some dark humor.
And the art is really, really good, it's like a mixture of David Aja and Alex Maleev, and the coloring really works. It's got that aged look but the red used for blood gets so bright and contrasts and stands out.
It's got a case of the potty mouth, and flashes some rude titties, but it's all consistent with the story being told so it works. I'm pleasantly surprised by this book, give it a shot.
Think Tank #1 was good this week. I'll definitely be adding it to my pull list.
It follows a lazy, overachieving genius who sold his soul to DARPA at 14, but now he doesn't want to create more killing machines.
Dan Abnett has made me a fan with his Deadwardians series (which is 2/3rds over now), but he just started up Hypernaturals a couple months ago.
0
Options
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited September 2012
I finished reading Guy Delisle's newest anthology book, Jerusalem: Chronicles From the Holy City, and it's easily the weakest of his four globe trotting books. I kind of had a feeling it wouldn't stand up well, but it's mainly because Guy doesn't really allow himself to be objective like he was in the other countries he visited, where he just observes. It takes place in 2008-9 while his wife is working for doctors without borders on the Palestinian side of Jerusalem, and he becomes Mr. Mom dealing with the kids and seeing all the different religions in the area.
One of the biggest things that stands out is not that he never really looks to get the other side of the story, which just seems dishonest. Because of what his wife does and where they live compared to the rest of Israel and West Jerusalem, he is surrounded by many who bring their own biases to the situation, and he just kind of accepts them. Yet at the same time, he doesn't really take the other sides POV into account as to why things are what they are, or dismisses it with pretty much a walking straw man (he picks a tour with one of the most extreme settlers to listen to). I don't really care what your opinion of the middle east is as long as you attempt to get both sides in an objective way, it just doesn't seem like Guy attempted that with any earnest. I don't know if he carried over some biases or what, it just seemed like he was much more willing to point out the flaws of one side of the conflict compared to the other. Operation Cast Lead occurs while he's there, and he basically ignores all the stuff that lead up to it, which seemed really apparent that something wasn't right with how he presented the attack (I don't care the opinion or side taken about it, just how the story just magically pops up). He even goes to a refugee city that is filled with a bunch of "martyrs" near Nablus, and he sees posters on the wall of them proclaiming how great they are and holding their guns like they're Rambo, then he just turns around and stops talking about it and checks out the town market. It almost feels a bit like self-censoring. One thing he does do a good job of is showing how everyone is almost unphased by the daily conflicts, and the road blocks, and various religious holidays.
Another thing which is odd is that he focuses a lot on the super orthodox Jewish citizens, the various Christians, and even the Samaritans, but he never really talks about Islam. Again, this seems odd because he's on the primarily Islamic side of the city which should lead to more interactions, but it's basically the daily prayer waking up his youngest child and that's it. And when he teaches some Muslim women at a comic workshop, he notices some women have pretty crappy lives but then that's it, he then devotes 10x more pages to a group of former Israeli soldiers who are documenting the way Palestinians are treated (a good story that adds more context but again, the balance is very off throughout the book). Oddly enough, the most fascinating parts of the story are when he's visiting the Christian churches throughout the city and places like the Holy Sepulchre. There is a story about the Russian Orthodox church that is just great, and he comes across a really cool Lutheran pastor who is basically a pastor version of Mr. Rogers, this mellow dude in a part of the world where everyone looks to pick a fight about something.
In all, it's a decent enough read, and there are things we see which are inexcusable without question, with context or without, primarily how extreme some settlers are that really points out the irony of the situation compared to previous generations. We also get some insight into certain customs that are always interesting in that useless fact kind of way (which I love). The trouble is, at the same time it doesn't attempt to have the people pointing fingers look in the mirror themselves, or even mention these flaws, which somewhat diminishes the validity of the claims. I would have also loved to see more interaction in Tel Aviv and the more modern parts of Israel, where the people basically have very poor opinions of everyone in Jerusalem in general, or even the Bedouins who have a very fascinating way of life.
edit: and because it's comics, Spidey kippa!
TexiKen on
0
Options
AJRSome guy who wrestlesNorwichRegistered Userregular
I find Guy Delisle to be incredibly dull. I read through Pyongyang and found it interesting at times, but not enough to buy anything else he's done. I get that the mundaneness of it all is part of the point, but Guy himself was also really uninteresting.
At the moment I’d say there's two books coming out that I'm excited for; The Hive and Pachyderme.
I’ve been a fan of Charles Burns ever since I read through Black Hole a few years back, and X’ed Out was a really fun, surreal ride that laid a lot of groundwork for what could be a really great trilogy. I just hope The Hive builds on that. I also thought this wasn’t coming out till October, so if it’s available now I’ll have to get it.
One of the most heartfelt comics I’ve ever read was an autobiographical book by Frederick Peters called Blue Pills. It’s mainly about his relationship with his long term partner Cati and her son, both of whom are HIV positive. I just really like how positive the book is, considering how HIV is normally viewed in modern media. Pachyderme is the second book entirely written and drawn by Peters to be translated into English, and whilst it’s not at all autobiographical, I’m really excited to see more of Peters work.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Happy #1, I liked it, the hook is good enough to be a change on the usual crime book without stepping on other toes in Image's lineup. It does have an Ennis vibe to it, but more of a Welcome Back Frank vibe as opposed to Preacher. And the cussing isn't a problem in how the story is presented, as it's mainly in the beginning by some upstart Jersey Shore people. After that it becomes your normal dosage of cussing that you get in standard crime movies.
The basic premise of the story is a ex cop turned hitman has to kill some guys, gets injured but along the way finds out the password to a crime family fortune that he is the last person to know of. And you have a crime boss who wants that information. In the hospital the morphine makes Sax the cop think he's seeing a little blue unicorn pegasus, but it turns out it's actually his daughter's imaginary friend whose asking him for help. So you have two crisscrossing stories, and the cartoonish aspect of Happy the Horse is done perfectly by Robertson.
Now, this does read like it was made for a movie in that Millar sense, but there's a lot of story here and it doesn't feel stretched out, and that should help it. It does have some completely Morrison moments (a bit on the nose with a Kafka inspired serial killer), and I think I can see where the reveal of the imaginary friend will lead to some heartache later on, but for now good story, good art, good purchase. And it really has some good lines of dialogue: "my eczema flares up in the presence of sanctimonious assholes," it's just a nice line.
0
Options
AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
I think it's interesting that all of Hicks' work, feels like a Faith Erin Hicks book, even if it's not written by her. I don't know if it's because she has such a distinct visual style, or because she tends to do a lot of work in the same genre.
Does Planetoid count as indie? I'm loving it. It reminds me a lot of Blame! in terms of the vibe and the architecture and I loved Blame! first ones free on comixology...
At New York Comic Con 2012, Legendary Comics' booth was packed for a very special announcement. "Pacific Rim" director Guillermo del Toro and screenwriter Travis Beachem along with superstar writer Grant Morrison and Legendary Comics Editor-in-Chief Bob Schreck took the stage to announce two exciting new projects for the company's comics line. Morrison announced "Annihilator," a new creator-owned series, while del Toro and Beachem plan to helm a "Pacific Rim" comic prequel.
Morrison's "Annihilator" centers around Ray Spass, a down-on-his luck screenwriter with a brain tumor who gets the chance to write a huge blockbuster film.
"He gets the opportunity to write a big tentpole movie called 'Annihilator,' which is based on a character called Max Nomax who's an ancient pulp character," Morrison said. "Max Nomax isn't actually an ancient pulp character, we made him up specifically for this. Our story is that Race Spaz has got this movie and he kind of makes a deal with the devil. Two days later, the FBI shows up at his door and says, 'A man just turned up -- in a block hole we created. Why does he want to meet you?' He looks at the picture and says, 'This is the new character in my new flick.'"
What follows is a journey very much in Morrison's wheelhouse: a road trip of self discovery with a fictional, but real, character.
"The two of them go on a bit of a road trip trying to escape from a guy that's been sent to destroy this Nomax character," Morrison explained. "It's a love story, it's a mystery, it's a sci-fi story. It's kind of got everything in it, but most of all it's a Hollywood story -- the difference between artifice and authenticity."
Morrison also revealed one of the major plot points of "Annihilator" -- that Spass' deadline for his script is a very real problem.
"It's quite clear that Max Nomax is real, the question is how can this be? If he doesn't write down the story, he dies of the brain tumor," he said. "If he does write the story, he unloads the information and saves his own life and the universe. That's the problem he's going through. He has four days to finish the screenplay or he'll die... "I think we've all had the deadline horror and I want to take the deadline horror and expand it to make it cosmic."
The idea for the series actually came from a challenge from fellow creator Rian Hughes that Morrison took on.
"Rian Hughes challenged me to do something that was as intricate as 'Watchmen,' and I said, 'No way,' but I went away and I just got into this whole idea of doing something with a black hole as a motif, hence the thing in the guy's brain, hence the black hole," he said. "It originally came from a challenge from Rian Hughes."
While Morrison's stable of work has mostly consisted of superhero work, he's recently begun more high-concept creator-owned titles like "Happy!" -- "Annihilator" falls in the same category and Morrison sees a set of unique challenges in tackling high concept without capes.
"It's been fun. Obviously with the superheroes it's easy because they come with the emotional baggage attached," he said. "This one, you try to create new characters and make sure people can get into it as quickly as possible in the first issue. I've got to say, it's been really fun because for the last ten years I've done almost exclusively superheroes. It's been great. I'm trying to take the same sensibilities of the superhero story and the big moments and the big beats and the big images and fit it to a different kind of story."
Legendary will also release a prequell comic tying into Guillermo del Toro's upcoming film, "Pacific Rim"
The writer describes the size and scope of the story as more influenced by movie trailers than actual films. "I wanted a story that all the boring shit is out of it. There's a kind of influence on how the story is told in trailers. There's a hugeness in the way you tell the story," Morrison explained. "It's more like the way we feel life. If you put our lives in television, it'd be kind of boring, but the way we feel it is epic. Every moment is epic. I'm trying to get that feeling in the double-page spreads."
This sounds more of what I want from a Morrison Creator owned!
"Ride or Die?" asked Goku
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
East Meets West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta
The team behind FF at Marvel Comics comes to Image Comics to bring this new series which is another sci-fi story, this time set in a dystopian future as a western with a plot to kill the President of the United States
"Ride or Die?" asked Goku
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
Posts
Are you kidding me sir ಠ_ಠ
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
-years later those kids riot, bringing the country to its knees
-in order to keep the peace, AGP is made to make the kids try out to be heroes in a yearly tournament
-so the kids are fighting and risking their lives for ratings, the less powerful one run the stadium
-this year they want to kill all the kids under the guise of upping the stakes in the game
-one of the kids who has no powers does amazing things and becomes the favorite to win, possibly change everything
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
Stokoe gave an interview recently, and addressed Orc Stain's lateness.
Tumblr Twitter
But, there's nothing that made me feel like I need to come back for the next issue. It's a very sullen, dour book, for one. The protagonist, Aric, doesn't really do anything to distinguish himself from the other, generic Visigoths he's surrounded by. There's no villains of note or interest.
Really, it reads like a Conan comic, except Conan's abducted by aliens half-way through the story, and spends the rest of the issue in chains.
This seems to be setup for the usual story of the protagonist proving himself, stealing his enemies' weapons, and wreaking holy havoc at home and abroad. But, I kind of want to get to that stuff now.
I feel like, if the structure of this story was re-ordered a bit, I'd like it a bit more. Save all the exposition for later. Just open on a medieval warrior in a suit of space-armor, annihilating Romans, and then reveal the events that led to those circumstances.
Tumblr Twitter
I bought it, too. I didn't even realize that it's not one of the Dark Horse reboots that Jim Shooter is heading up until I got it home - this is an actual Valiant comic. I don't really have anything good or bad to say about the first issue, but I'll keep reading the series. I do think Cary Nord is a brilliant choice for this book, though.
Tristan Wilder is amazing. Holy shit. His blog thing there is also probably not safe for work.
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
XBL: JyrenB ; Steam: Jyren ; Twitter
If you've been curious about the series, give review a look.
Tumblr Twitter
It's beautifully illustrated, and it's got that soft touch of humor from the Muppets Show that is nice to see and maybe a few years ahead of it's time (though the constant reference to smoking and cigarettes might be a problem if it ever made it to the present screen), but it just kind of has no real end, and that was really disappointing. It really feels like that Simpsons episode with the chili cookoff (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer) only cranked up to 11, and there's this completely out of the blue nudity scene at the end that just seems superfluous.
It has very little dialogue in it, so I couldn't recommend it unless you could get the book for under 10 bucks, 15 might be pushing it.
The plot really needs to get moving, and I wish this wasn't such a terribly transparent attempt to pitch a TV show by Kirkman, but I'm enjoying the ride so far.
X-O Manowar is a bit dry. That's the only way I know how to phrase it. The action, the dialogue, the art, the story all feel kind of antiseptic and boring, like Venditti and Nord are playing the whole concept way too seriously.
I mean, it's basically Conan the Barbarian, in a suit of power-armor, aided by soldiers from the greatest warrior civilizations of the world, and fighting to escape alien imprisonment. And it's just boring. I feel like in another creative team's hands, this concept could be a lot of fun, but these creators have failed to convince me they're the ones for the job.
Harbinger was an interesting first issue. I never read the old Valiant series, but this iteration is clearly cut from the same cloth as "realistic" superhero stories like the film Chronicle, or Push. There's a guy with powers, and he's on the run from a mysterious organization. Over the course of the story, he discovers there are others like him, and he's offered a chance to learn more about his powers.
It's very X-Men, I suppose. Where it diverges, is by having the protagonist immediately presented as an amoral, self-medicating shithead. He steals drugs and money from pharmacies, mind-wiping the pharmacists who give him grief. He squats in abandoned houses. He stalks a girl he once knew, and mind-whammies her into making out with him, and possibly sleeping with him. He's not a good guy, and he knows it. He also knows he's cracking up a little more by the day, as his life on the run takes its toll.
Most stories about amoral protagonists eventually show them repenting and getting on the straight and narrow, but I kind of hope this one doesn't, at least for a while. I've always thought it'd be nice to have an ongoing story about a supervillain, and Joshua Dysart's a creative enough writer to pull that off, and with Khari Evans drawing it, the story's sure to look pretty awesome.
Mudman continues to be a lot of fun. Paul Grist's little essays in the front are always interesting to read, as he opines on the nature of comics, and I'm really enjoying the kind of episodic format he's using with this series. It reminds me of Chew, in that each issue works as a story by itself, while still connecting into a larger plot.
Creator-Owned Heroes is a book with a really interesting format. For $3.99 you get twenty-two pages of comics, and sixteen pages of essays, reviews, cosplay photos, etc. Unfortunately, with two comics, each only eleven pages long, there's not much room to hook the reader, and the creators don't use the space they do have, particularly well.
The first four pages of one story, are dedicated to the exciting thrill of stopping a car with bad brakes, by shooting out its tire with a shotgun, while introducing the cast. Then there's a double-page splash a bit later, and a splash page at the end.
The other story uses its pages a bit better, but still spends a lot of time showing us how the heroine gets from A to B, rather than just starting us off at the more interesting B, and then rewinding later, once we're more invested in the character.
It doesn't help that the stories are really kind of boring. One's basically Mad Max meets The Hills Have Eyes, while the other is the usual brain-washed killing machine thing, I feel I've seen plenty of times before.
I'm going to hang with it for another issue, to see if the creators pull off some kind of interesting twist, but right now, I'm exactly crazy about it.
Incidentally, I got a copy of my current pull list, to review what I'm currently buying.
I'm currently pulling fifteen Image books, seven Marvel, one Valiant, and zero DC.
Some of those Image books are mini-series, but it's still kind of interesting, to see how my tastes are currently skewing.
Tumblr Twitter
It's two stories using the same art; one is Kristiansen's original story translated by Seagle, and the other is Seagle's story just going by the art alone, and not knowing the story. Seagle's always been an underrated guy who usually delivers streets ahead stuff and the book comes out next week.
Did I mention I bought the Coldest City OGN? It's a spy story set during the fall of the Berlin Wall when an outside British spy is sent to retrieve a list of everyone's undercover spies in Berlin—and must face both threats and the complacency of both sides' spies to being more committed to their insular community than the Great Game. I'm not doing it justice, and when I finish it I will post a review. But it is very much like LeCarré and Queen and Country if you're into that stuff.
If this book doesn't win the Eisner next year, burn it all down.
On topic, this recap of the Monkeybrain panel at Comic-con should make you dudes happy and excited: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39898
The fact that their policy is to release a comic when it's done means not having to give a shit about pushing fans to pre-order, and that's one of the great things about digital first publishing. Hell, it's basically the webcomic model, but with an upfront payment. I imagine it takes a LOT of financial burden off the shoulders of both the creators and the publisher.
And then The Massive is brilliant as well.
But I need to tell you guys how great Mind Mgmt by Matt Kindt is, over at Darkhorse. It is seriously the greatest thing! And the single issues are backed with backup strips and extra stories and in-universe advertisements and easter eggs and liner notes and a letters column and tons of other shit that they went out of the way to mention will not be any collections of the series.
It is weird and freaky and mind-bendy, and it is a trip and a pleasure to read as you have to parse it like a mystery in order to read it, with sets of clues coming from the various backups and tiny easter eggs tucked into issues that you have to go back and investigate each time a new one is out.
Also, the letters column has all been pros for the first couple issues, with Jeff Lemire writing in and Cullen Bunn saying that the first issue made him accidentally explode a cat with his latent powers.
The best way I can describe it is a cocky drug addicted surgeon screws up royally, and is kicked out of the profession, and gets tangled up in being a mob surgeon and moving on to organ harvesting. It's a completely original story and carries itself like a decent crime drama with some dark humor.
And the art is really, really good, it's like a mixture of David Aja and Alex Maleev, and the coloring really works. It's got that aged look but the red used for blood gets so bright and contrasts and stands out.
It's got a case of the potty mouth, and flashes some rude titties, but it's all consistent with the story being told so it works. I'm pleasantly surprised by this book, give it a shot.
It follows a lazy, overachieving genius who sold his soul to DARPA at 14, but now he doesn't want to create more killing machines.
Dan Abnett has made me a fan with his Deadwardians series (which is 2/3rds over now), but he just started up Hypernaturals a couple months ago.
One of the biggest things that stands out is not that he never really looks to get the other side of the story, which just seems dishonest. Because of what his wife does and where they live compared to the rest of Israel and West Jerusalem, he is surrounded by many who bring their own biases to the situation, and he just kind of accepts them. Yet at the same time, he doesn't really take the other sides POV into account as to why things are what they are, or dismisses it with pretty much a walking straw man (he picks a tour with one of the most extreme settlers to listen to). I don't really care what your opinion of the middle east is as long as you attempt to get both sides in an objective way, it just doesn't seem like Guy attempted that with any earnest. I don't know if he carried over some biases or what, it just seemed like he was much more willing to point out the flaws of one side of the conflict compared to the other. Operation Cast Lead occurs while he's there, and he basically ignores all the stuff that lead up to it, which seemed really apparent that something wasn't right with how he presented the attack (I don't care the opinion or side taken about it, just how the story just magically pops up). He even goes to a refugee city that is filled with a bunch of "martyrs" near Nablus, and he sees posters on the wall of them proclaiming how great they are and holding their guns like they're Rambo, then he just turns around and stops talking about it and checks out the town market. It almost feels a bit like self-censoring. One thing he does do a good job of is showing how everyone is almost unphased by the daily conflicts, and the road blocks, and various religious holidays.
Another thing which is odd is that he focuses a lot on the super orthodox Jewish citizens, the various Christians, and even the Samaritans, but he never really talks about Islam. Again, this seems odd because he's on the primarily Islamic side of the city which should lead to more interactions, but it's basically the daily prayer waking up his youngest child and that's it. And when he teaches some Muslim women at a comic workshop, he notices some women have pretty crappy lives but then that's it, he then devotes 10x more pages to a group of former Israeli soldiers who are documenting the way Palestinians are treated (a good story that adds more context but again, the balance is very off throughout the book). Oddly enough, the most fascinating parts of the story are when he's visiting the Christian churches throughout the city and places like the Holy Sepulchre. There is a story about the Russian Orthodox church that is just great, and he comes across a really cool Lutheran pastor who is basically a pastor version of Mr. Rogers, this mellow dude in a part of the world where everyone looks to pick a fight about something.
In all, it's a decent enough read, and there are things we see which are inexcusable without question, with context or without, primarily how extreme some settlers are that really points out the irony of the situation compared to previous generations. We also get some insight into certain customs that are always interesting in that useless fact kind of way (which I love). The trouble is, at the same time it doesn't attempt to have the people pointing fingers look in the mirror themselves, or even mention these flaws, which somewhat diminishes the validity of the claims. I would have also loved to see more interaction in Tel Aviv and the more modern parts of Israel, where the people basically have very poor opinions of everyone in Jerusalem in general, or even the Bedouins who have a very fascinating way of life.
edit: and because it's comics, Spidey kippa!
At the moment I’d say there's two books coming out that I'm excited for; The Hive and Pachyderme.
I’ve been a fan of Charles Burns ever since I read through Black Hole a few years back, and X’ed Out was a really fun, surreal ride that laid a lot of groundwork for what could be a really great trilogy. I just hope The Hive builds on that. I also thought this wasn’t coming out till October, so if it’s available now I’ll have to get it.
One of the most heartfelt comics I’ve ever read was an autobiographical book by Frederick Peters called Blue Pills. It’s mainly about his relationship with his long term partner Cati and her son, both of whom are HIV positive. I just really like how positive the book is, considering how HIV is normally viewed in modern media. Pachyderme is the second book entirely written and drawn by Peters to be translated into English, and whilst it’s not at all autobiographical, I’m really excited to see more of Peters work.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
The basic premise of the story is a ex cop turned hitman has to kill some guys, gets injured but along the way finds out the password to a crime family fortune that he is the last person to know of. And you have a crime boss who wants that information. In the hospital the morphine makes Sax the cop think he's seeing a little blue unicorn pegasus, but it turns out it's actually his daughter's imaginary friend whose asking him for help. So you have two crisscrossing stories, and the cartoonish aspect of Happy the Horse is done perfectly by Robertson.
Now, this does read like it was made for a movie in that Millar sense, but there's a lot of story here and it doesn't feel stretched out, and that should help it. It does have some completely Morrison moments (a bit on the nose with a Kafka inspired serial killer), and I think I can see where the reveal of the imaginary friend will lead to some heartache later on, but for now good story, good art, good purchase. And it really has some good lines of dialogue: "my eczema flares up in the presence of sanctimonious assholes," it's just a nice line.
i'm surprised about all of that
I think it's interesting that all of Hicks' work, feels like a Faith Erin Hicks book, even if it's not written by her. I don't know if it's because she has such a distinct visual style, or because she tends to do a lot of work in the same genre.
Tumblr Twitter
This sounds more of what I want from a Morrison Creator owned!
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
http://ifanboy.com/articles/nycc-2012-image-comics-announcement-onslaught-paul-pope-chaykin-mccannlee-gillenkelly-hickmandragotta-more/
Dis is the one I can't wait for!
"Ride or Die" confirmed Dominic Toretto, as they took off to find the Dragon Balls in hopes of reviving their friend Sonic
James Harren is amazing, and BPRD continues to look awesome as hell