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I can't say I've been really sad or upset to see any show go. There's so much good TV out there than I'm never wanting for things to watch.
I'm only sad when a show that has an overarching plot doesn't get to finish that plot. As long as the writers have enough notice to give it a proper sendoff, I'm a happy guy.
It's a problem of narrative structure though. With a series you can never answer every question as you'd end up needing an episode or two after the ending to deal with the little side stories in a satisfactory manner.
Angel had about as good an ending as you could hope for. Even if it never does reveal who the (robot?) ninjas were. I should really pick up the Buffy/Angel comics.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I'd add Cerebus to that list, as it's utterly seminal stuff right up until the crazy becomes apparent (about half way through). One of the finest artists in comics history who's also one of the finest writers and is also to my mind the greatest letterer ever writes a story about an aardvark. Utterly unique.
Criminal: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Hardboiled crime stories that pull no punches and ranks right up there with the best of classic noir.
Sleeper: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Superheroes mix with spy stories and crime across four volumes of double-crosses and violence.
Powers: Brian Michael bendis and Michael Oeming the first volumes (before they became a Marvel property) are incredible, taking superheroes and police procedurals and mixing them together in a way that made the best of Bendis's considerable talents with snappy and realistic dialogue.
Watching the House before last. So goddamned gross.
Elki on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited May 2009
I can't honestly recommend Cerberus as I've never been able to slog through it despite several nobly-doomed attempts. It's just so insular, such a singular solipsistic trek into one crazy person's mind. I got halfway into Church and State and felt like I needed to breathe free air.
Yalborap: JLA, New Frontier, Seven Soldiers, the Jack Kirby hardcovers, Doom Patrol, Transmetropolitan, and Preacher should all be stocked at finer bookeries everywhere.
Jacobkosh on
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Watching the House before last. So goddamned gross.
The last few episodes of House have gone absolutely mental. To use a grotesque term, they might well have jumped the shark. And I did not want it to get cancelled before it had a Stephen Fry cameo.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Criminal: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Hardboiled crime stories that pull no punches and ranks right up there with the best of classic noir.
Sleeper: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Superheroes mix with spy stories and crime across four volumes of double-crosses and violence.
Powers: Brian Michael bendis and Michael Oeming the first volumes (before they became a Marvel property) are incredible, taking superheroes and police procedurals and mixing them together in a way that made the best of Bendis's considerable talents with snappy and realistic dialogue.
I also endorse this post.
But I have to go. Been nice reading you, [chat]. Bye!
Watching the House before last. So goddamned gross.
The last few episodes of House have gone absolutely mental. To use a grotesque term, they might well have jumped the shark. And I did not want it to get cancelled before it had a Stephen Fry cameo.
Speaking of Fry, I watched Kingdom's pilot, and didn't really like it.
Elki on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited May 2009
Ice and Fire fans really creep me out, and I have difficulty respecting their really sad lack of patience when a new Vorkosigan book hasn't come out for like 8 years, Dangerous Visions will never be finished and nobody has necromantically raised Patrick O'Brian to wrap up the Aubrey/Maturin books.
Also, check out some trade paperback collections of comics: they often have pages of the original scriptand art in the back as an extra. Several of the Punisher Max TPBs have these, and are worth buying anyway as it's the quintessential take on the character and utterly amazing to boot.
Man, Veronica Mars was so good. And then, like many high school shows, it transformed itself into just a pretty good one when it left for college.
Will do. There's a list of good ones over in Graphic Violence, right?
I've got what you need right here! I made this list for Poshniallo a couple years ago and have reposted it like twenty times since.
SUPERHERO
Marvel
New X-Men - in 2001, Marvel hired Grant Morrison (you'll see his name crop up a lot on this list) to revitalize the flagging X-Men franchise. He took his mission statement seriously and made forty of the best X-Men issues ever, breathing new life into the comic with wild new characters and ideas. They're compelling action comics at its finest, completely accessible to anyone with even a basic familiarity with the X-Men concept and are packed with details that reward attentive readers on a second and third reading. Available in trade or giant hardcover omnibus.
DC
JLA - Marvel picked Morrison for the job because he'd done so well here, with DC's JLA: Justice League of America, where he took a dead comic and made it the company's top seller for the mid-1990s. It's forty-two issues of DC's biggest heroes fighting mind-bending cosmic threats on a scale never before seen in superhero books. Available in trade.
All-Star Superman - Last year DC hired Morrison, along with uber-artist Frank Quitely, to tell twelve Superman stories unshackled by rules or continuity. The result has been some of the best Superman stories ever, backed by incredible art. Ongoing; the first six issues are available in trade.
Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier - in 2004, animator-turned-artist Darwyn Cooke told this story of what might have happened if DC's greatest heroes had gotten their start during the heyday of 1950s atomic paranoia and McCarthyism. Gorgeous art with a space-age, lounge lizard flair complements a really cool, politcally savvy story. Available in trade or giant hardcover omnibus.
Superman: Birthright - More 2004 vintage: Mark Waid and artist Leinil Francis Yu retell Superman's origin and early days. It was written to tie the comics version into "Smallville", but Birthright is about eight thousand times better than the show. Waid's really good at earnest, heartfelt writing and it's used to good effect here. Available in trade.
Seven Soldiers - Grant Morrison's most recent megaproject: seven super-obscure DC heroes are reinvented for the 21st century and have to work together as a team to fight off an invasion - without ever meeting each other. Each character has their own separate story (with their own, usually awesome, artist) but read together they combine to form a super-complicated single narrative. Available in four trades.
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus - The long-awaited rerelease of Jack Kirby's massively ambitious comics opera about the "New Gods", beings of good and evil fighting a cosmic battle on Earth, with characters like Superman and Jimmy Olsen getting caught in the crossfire. Nearly forty years later this still blows most modern comics out of the water in terms of sheer craziness and energy. Ongoing: the first big hardcover is out now, more will follow every few months.
Image
Stormwatch - in the late 90s Warren Ellis took a shitty action comic about superheroes working for the UN and turned it into an epic political thriller about black ops, sabotage, and assassination. Available in trade.
The Authority - after Stormwatch dies at the hands of Aliens (as in, Aliens from the movie, yes, really) Ellis launched this spinoff. The surviving members of Stormwatch, and some new characters, do battle with huge "widescreen" threats using increasingly fascist methods, eventually turning their eyes towards America itself. Available in trade or big hardcover omnibus.
Planetary - another Ellis comic in the Stormwatch universe, about the Planetary Society, a team of super-archaeologists who travel the earth in search of the strange, mysterious, and extraordinary: ghost cops in Hong Kong, lost cities, forgotten heroes and even the corpse of Godzilla. Available in trade.
Supreme - comics legend Alan Moore's take on the Superman mythos. A loving homage to 50s comics as well as a powerful story in its own right. Available in trade.
G0dland - Writer Joe Casey and artist Tom Scioli take Jack Kirby's style of storytelling into the present day: cosmic gods are here doing battle on earth - for good, for evil, or in one case, for really sweet drugs. It's simultaneously a homage to and parody of stuff like The Fantastic Four and Johnny Quest, and is a deliriously good time. Ongoing; the first twelve issues are available in two trades.
ABC
Top 10 - After Supreme, Image gave Alan Moore his own division of the company to run wild with, and he created some of the best work of his career. Top 10 is one of these, about cops in a city where everyone - the police, the criminals, the citizens, the garbagemen - has superpowers. With insanely detailed art by Gene Ha. Available in trade.
Promethea - a modern girl gets the power of Promethea, a heroine from the realm of the imagination, and goes on a psychedelic tour of the history of art, religion, and consciousness itself. If you liked Sandman you should love this. Available in trade.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - forget the shitty movie, this is the real deal. Captain Ahab, Allan Quartermain, the Invisible Man, Mina Harker (from Dracula), and Dr Jekyll versus the great villains of literature. Fuck yeah. Available in trade.
NON SUPERHERO
DC-Vertigo
Shade the Changing Man - One of the original early-90s Vertigo titles, along with Sandman - this was about Rac Shade, a secret agent from the planet Meta, sent here to stop a disease made of sentient madness from taking over the world. Along the way he befriends and falls in love with a troubled, vulnerable girl and her brash, lesbian New York girlfriend. The book was a wildly experimental look at culture, politics, and psychology that didn't always make a lot of sense but was always fascinating. The first couple trades are out; more are due later.
Sandman Mystery Theatre - DC's original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, a playboy who solves crimes that he predicts in dreams, reinvented as a 1930s pulp crusader. The stories were scrupulously researched and historically accurate, but had the adventure and flair of the classic pulps. Underrated at the time it came out, it's now recognized as a classic. The first couple trades are out; more will become available later.
Doom Patrol - Grant Morrison's first really big splash at DC was with this title, reinventing a little-known superhero comic into a bizarre odyssey into mysticism and Dada art. Some of the weirdest shit you'll ever read is right here, but it's all backed up with a genuinely sweet and moving love story and relatable characters. All but the last one or two trades are available.
The Invisibles - This is Morrison's life work, the thing that he'll most likely be remembered for. A team of occult revolutionaries, "the Invisibles", use magic and James Bond mojo to battle a global conspiracy, with human free will as the prize. Morrison tosses everything into this book: science fiction, superheroes, movies, great literature, pop culture, music, art, history, politics, cutting-edge science - all with the goal of explaining life, the universe, and everything. A tour de force in every sense of the word, very possibly one of the most important comics ever made. Available in trade.
Flex Mentallo - But my personal favorite of Morrison's books - possibly my favorite comic ever, and many other people's as well - is this four issue opus. Flex Mentallo is a character from Doom Patrol, but you don't need to know anything about him to appreciate this story. A young pop musician has overdosed and called the suicide hotline to reminisce about his boyhood as he lays dying in an alleyway; meanwhile, muscular superhero Flex Mentallo is trying to solve a mysterious threat to the whole world. The two stories converge in an incredibly powerful, moving way. Unfortunately a lawsuit from the Charles Atlas company (to whom Flex bears a resemblance) has made this series difficult to obtain legally, but rumor has it that it might be collected in the last Doom Patrol trade.
Preacher - A young, disillusioned Texas pastor becomes the unwitting host of a heavenly being, and goes on a road trip with his girlfriend and an Irish vampire named Cassidy to escape the religious conspiracy that wants his power for themselves. Which sounds really gothy and serious, but it's the total opposite, with wild comedy, ridiculous ultraviolence, anal-raping cannibals, and a kid named "Arseface" because he has a face like an arse. Available in trades.
Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis' magnum opus is this science-fiction story about Spider Jerusalem, an irascible, drug-abusing, Hunter S. Thompson-like journalist battling hypocrisy and political corruption in The City, the sprawling megalopolis that covers most of 22nd-century America. Available in trades.
100 Bullets - a mysterious black-suited man finds people who've been wronged somehow and offers them a briefcase containing two pistols, one hundred untraceable bullets, and photographs and documents proving who was responsible for what happened to them. What happens next is up to them. Ongoing; available in trades.
Y: The Last Man - Yorick, a twentysomething slacker dude in New York, is the last survivor of a disease that's killed every last male human on earth. As he embarks on a postapocalyptic odyssey across America to find his girlfriend, various forces are hunting him to get the secret of his survival. Ongoing; available in trades.
Misc
From Hell - the movie was bullshit, but the book is solid gold. Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell present their uber-researched, super-detailed take on the Jack the Ripper crimes, and it's pretty much a total tour de force and an essential piece of comics even for people who don't usually read them. Available in trade.
Alec - This is Eddie Campbell's solo book, an autobiographical story spanning three decades and giving insight into his family life, his artistic career, and the ups and downs of the British and worldwide comic business from the 80s to today. Available in trades.
Strangehaven - A dude on a road trip through rural England wrecks his car and finds himself stranded in the village of Strangehaven, a mysterious town with very odd residents, and finds it impossible to leave. It's like the Twin Peaks or Prisoner of comics. Ongoing, available in trade.
Optic Nerve - writer/artist Adrian Tomine's collection of short stories about teens and twentysomethings, ranging from a couple of pages long to a couple of issues, in the style of Raymond Carver: quiet, observational, and intensely realistic. His draughtsmanship is impeccable and his writing has a gift for understatement. The stories depict the very smallest of incidents - a boy and girl meeting at a concert, or a kid stealing from the copy shop where he works - but manage to linger in your mind for weeks afterwards. Available in trades.
Now, what on that list can I get my hands on today in your average bookstore without needing to order online?
The Authority and Planetary are fantastic. You probably won't find either in a Barnes and Nobles though. You must put aside your fears and enter a comic book shop.
Malkor on
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
jacob I have that list saved in a text file somewhere.
The Authority and Planetary are fantastic. You probably won't find either in a Barnes and Nobles though. You must put aside your fears and enter a comic book shop.
Those are legitimate fears.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Ice and Fire fans really creep me out, and I have difficulty respecting their really sad lack of patience when a new Vorkosigan book hasn't come out for like 8 years, Dangerous Visions will never be finished and nobody has necromantically raised Patrick O'Brian to wrap up the Aubrey/Maturin books.
For serious, that thread is a weird one to read.
Of all forms of media, books are the only I don't a wish list of, because it would end up way too big to be useful.
Elki on
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
patrick stewart's clip has to be the best ever on that show
I was just about to post that McKellan one. I am seeing them both in a play this weekend and my posting the clip was really just a prelude to boasting about that. Shame is a stranger to me.
I was just about to post that McKellan one. I am seeing them both in a play this weekend and my posting the clip was really just a prelude to boasting about that. Shame is a stranger to me.
Waiting for Godot? That's going to play by me soon (or already has, I forget).
Starcross on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited May 2009
Vari: I should really update the list sometime. I wrote it a couple years a go and I've read more stuff I liked and also some books I didn't list because they were impossible to find have come available again.
Of all forms of media, books are the only I don't a wish list of, because it would end up way too big to be useful.
I think the only way to do it is by genre and even then that gets unwieldy.
I would happily compose such a list, though, because - and I hate to wax Podly for a second, but it's true - the reading thread is a morass of terrible fantasy novels and people talking about terrible fantasy novels, and acknowledging that they're terrible, and still reading them anyway.
Jacobkosh on
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
Vari: I should really update the list sometime. I wrote it a couple years a go and I've read more stuff I liked and also some books I didn't list because they were impossible to find have come available again.
Of all forms of media, books are the only I don't a wish list of, because it would end up way too big to be useful.
I think the only way to do it is by genre and even then that gets unwieldy.
I would happily compose such a list, though, because - and I hate to wax Podly for a second, but it's true - the reading thread is a morass of terrible fantasy novels and people talking about terrible fantasy novels, and acknowledging that they're terrible, and still reading them anyway.
You could try creating a literature thread, which would instead be full of people calling you pretentious and arguing about what literature means.
Starcross on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited May 2009
re 'Extras':
For some reason I found the episodes centered on UK stars I'm only marginally familiar with a lot less painful to watch. There was less of the "oh my god he's about to humiliate himself in front of Kate Winslet" going on.
Jacobkosh on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
edited May 2009
Nobody has ever explained to me exactly what they think pretentious people are pretending to be. I'm not pretending to be a guy who reads Nabokov and watches obscure Iranian films! I really am that guy!
Jacobkosh on
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
Vari: I should really update the list sometime. I wrote it a couple years a go and I've read more stuff I liked and also some books I didn't list because they were impossible to find have come available again.
Of all forms of media, books are the only I don't a wish list of, because it would end up way too big to be useful.
I think the only way to do it is by genre and even then that gets unwieldy.
I would happily compose such a list, though, because - and I hate to wax Podly for a second, but it's true - the reading thread is a morass of terrible fantasy novels and people talking about terrible fantasy novels, and acknowledging that they're terrible, and still reading them anyway.
this is actually mostly true, though I say that as someone with nothing to contribute either way.
let me know if you update the list. I like having it and from time to time imagining buying something off of it
For some reason I found the episodes centered on UK stars I'm only marginally familiar with a lot less painful to watch. There was less of the "oh my god he's about to humiliate himself in front of Kate Winslet" going on.
Oh man, the Les Dennis one was so painful to watch. Christ. I've never been able to rewatch that one.
Nobody has ever explained to me exactly what they think pretentious people are pretending to be. I'm not pretending to be a guy who reads Nabokov and watches obscure Iranian films! I really am that guy!
you're pretending to be better than people who don't.
For some reason I found the episodes centered on UK stars I'm only marginally familiar with a lot less painful to watch. There was less of the "oh my god he's about to humiliate himself in front of Kate Winslet" going on.
Oh man, the Les Dennis one was so painful to watch. Christ. I've never been able to rewatch that one.
That one was interesting. Poor Les Dennis. He played his own public image.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
Oh god, oh god, oh god
panic attack
panic
attack
this nasty fucking breakfast sandwich isn't helping
the itty bitty cup of coffee just made my heart start going nuts
I am going to flunk this test so goddamn badly it is not even funny
Posts
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Angel had about as good an ending as you could hope for. Even if it never does reveal who the (robot?) ninjas were. I should really pick up the Buffy/Angel comics.
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I tell you, when I have kids they're going to find the idea that you used to have to watch TV on a schedule really quaint.
I already find it quaint. Huzzah for DVRs.
Criminal: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Hardboiled crime stories that pull no punches and ranks right up there with the best of classic noir.
Sleeper: Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. Superheroes mix with spy stories and crime across four volumes of double-crosses and violence.
Powers: Brian Michael bendis and Michael Oeming the first volumes (before they became a Marvel property) are incredible, taking superheroes and police procedurals and mixing them together in a way that made the best of Bendis's considerable talents with snappy and realistic dialogue.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
@Haps: Thanks!
Yalborap: JLA, New Frontier, Seven Soldiers, the Jack Kirby hardcovers, Doom Patrol, Transmetropolitan, and Preacher should all be stocked at finer bookeries everywhere.
I also endorse this post.
But I have to go. Been nice reading you, [chat]. Bye!
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The Authority and Planetary are fantastic. You probably won't find either in a Barnes and Nobles though. You must put aside your fears and enter a comic book shop.
I am not actually a Wizard
For serious, that thread is a weird one to read.
Of all forms of media, books are the only I don't a wish list of, because it would end up way too big to be useful.
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How is it? I'll go and look in G&T. But perhaps I shall have to pick up some points.
Definitely. He was a last minute replacement for Jude Law, I think.
I quite like Robert De Niro's bit, small though it is. And of course Bowie's song in the bar.
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Waiting for Godot? That's going to play by me soon (or already has, I forget).
I think the only way to do it is by genre and even then that gets unwieldy.
I would happily compose such a list, though, because - and I hate to wax Podly for a second, but it's true - the reading thread is a morass of terrible fantasy novels and people talking about terrible fantasy novels, and acknowledging that they're terrible, and still reading them anyway.
true. I've seen the second season only once so I forgot he was in it at all. De Niro, not Bowie.
You could try creating a literature thread, which would instead be full of people calling you pretentious and arguing about what literature means.
For some reason I found the episodes centered on UK stars I'm only marginally familiar with a lot less painful to watch. There was less of the "oh my god he's about to humiliate himself in front of Kate Winslet" going on.
this is actually mostly true, though I say that as someone with nothing to contribute either way.
let me know if you update the list. I like having it and from time to time imagining buying something off of it
Oh man, the Les Dennis one was so painful to watch. Christ. I've never been able to rewatch that one.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
you're pretending to be better than people who don't.
not really but I think that's the assumption
panic attack
panic
attack
this nasty fucking breakfast sandwich isn't helping
the itty bitty cup of coffee just made my heart start going nuts
I am going to flunk this test so goddamn badly it is not even funny
NNID: Hakkekage
Me too! High five.