The Graphic Violence comic book reading club: Marvels; Read Book 2
deadonthestreet
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Keith's thread got me excited when I read the title, because I thought a book club was a really good idea. Turns out, it wasn't for the kind of book club I was thinking of.
What I'm thinking is more along the lines of a traditional book club. That is, we pick a graphic novel, or a story arc, or a TPB, and we all read it together, and discuss it. We will set dates by which certain chapters or pages or issues will be read. And we will discuss it. Yeah, it is kinda like homework
Really, it's that simple. The goal here is to get a little more of an in depth discussion than we usually get here. The other goal is to get us to read books that we may not otherwise read, or to get us to reread stuff that we haven't read in a while.
Yeah, this may require a bit of an investment. You may have to buy a book, if you can't find it at a library or otherwise borrow it. But we promise, every book we pick will be good.
Our first book has been selected and it is Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels. Marvels is the story of an everyman in the world of superheros. It is a really solid book. Don't worry, you don't need to know any of the Marvel mythology to understand or appreciate it.
Try to get yourself a copy by the middle of next week, so we can start reading.
It looks like Kingdom Come has the early lead for our second book.
What I'm thinking is more along the lines of a traditional book club. That is, we pick a graphic novel, or a story arc, or a TPB, and we all read it together, and discuss it. We will set dates by which certain chapters or pages or issues will be read. And we will discuss it. Yeah, it is kinda like homework
Really, it's that simple. The goal here is to get a little more of an in depth discussion than we usually get here. The other goal is to get us to read books that we may not otherwise read, or to get us to reread stuff that we haven't read in a while.
Yeah, this may require a bit of an investment. You may have to buy a book, if you can't find it at a library or otherwise borrow it. But we promise, every book we pick will be good.
Our first book has been selected and it is Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels. Marvels is the story of an everyman in the world of superheros. It is a really solid book. Don't worry, you don't need to know any of the Marvel mythology to understand or appreciate it.
Try to get yourself a copy by the middle of next week, so we can start reading.
It looks like Kingdom Come has the early lead for our second book.
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i edited the title for you
this is a good idea, too
don't do this to me
At first I thought Amazing Spider-Man post One More Day would be a keen suggestion since it's being bought across the board but goddamn that sounds like a bad idea.
Kingdom Come?
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It's a proven fact.
Whoa whoa hey now.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Fair enough.
*dramatic music*
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Conan seems pretty open and shut.
Man fights giant beast. Fucks exotic women, who in turn become reptile monsters he kills post-fucking.
And he is a crafty one.
Giant sperm monsters, yes?
Was there a Ruins tpb?
"Girls" follows the formula of taking everyday, normal, mundane life, injecting an element of the fantastic into it, and then watching how people's deal with it and how their relationships change in the process. It's not awful or anything like that, but at the end of the series I felt like the things whose resolution I didn't care about (because how they'd resolve was obvious) were resolved, and the things I was very curious about (the fantastical element) was not really addressed. The closest thing is the last couple of pages, where it feels like the creative team is saying "HAI GUYS LOOK AT HOW DEEP WE ARE!". That said, it was still pretty well-written, and there definitely were some "oh shit" moments.
For the first book to read-and-discuss, I'm down with either Kingdom Come or Marvels. I think both were really good, and in some sense they can be said to embody the extreme of their respective company's overall philosophy (DC: superheroes are god-like beings; Marvel: everyone is a Regular Joe).
However, I'm not sure if we will want to pick a super-popular book. If only because there will probably be a handful of people that will spoil the rest of the book or a person's motives before we are scheduled to have it finished. Like reading the first trade of Invincible wouldn't go over too well, because of what will happen in the second trade.
To avoid that, we would have to skip the "read it in chapters" part. And just pick a date for the entire run/book to be finished.
This also looks like it will only really work with elseworld/non-canonical stuff, mainly because of the continuity issues that we will all be upset about.
Maybe a non-tights book somewhere down the line would be cool too.
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there seems to be a lot of love/hate with this book. but there is plenty of complex threads going on with this book that should be interesting in a discussion/debate topic.
Both have their faults, but I'd say Marvels is better as well. Kingdom Come relies a lot on senseless killing and the "Holy shit, everyone's killing each other! Was that a fucking nuke!" to carry the load of the story's connection with the reader. Even with a relatively large knowledge of DC, I still found it to be filled with Alex Ross Sivler Age wankery and self gratification of his love of the heroes from that time period.
Marvels, on the otherhand, relies heavily on fan nostalgia to provide the emotional connection and let's that pull on the heart strings a bit. However, I find Busiek, who was at his best in this Astro City era of his writing, to do a much better job that Waid on KC. Ross' art is cleaner and less muddy looking as well. KC also felt like it was simply aping the man on the street character from Marvels and he's pretty much identical to the one in KC.
Now, saying one is better is an opinion and with two books as good as these, calling either better than the other doesn't really detract from the quality of the books. It's like asking if Captain America is better than Iron Fist right now. Both rock and the debates are more or less fan obsession to justify their purchases or favourite characters.
Oh, and I'd be up for anything. I haven't read Marvels in a while, so that would be neat for a start and most should be able to find it / already have it. We could do KC afterwards as a counterpart to it.
Ruins doesn't really meet the criteria of being good, though.
Anyone? Anyone? After Marvels?
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Basically, once we establish who is reading the current book, those reading it will pick a person from within the group to pick the next book. That way we'll be sure to get some slightly more obscure works. No one will reveal what book they will chose until they have been chosen to pick a book.
Of course, we will have veto power if we think the person has chosen a shitty book.
Fixed that for yah
I have it. I am so ready.
Anyway, I have a copy too so I'll participate