So far I'm thinking about getting Wanted, The Watchmen, and that Frank Miller Batman comic...the Dark Knight Returns was it? And yes I know Batman is a well established hero but that doesn't matter...he's freaking Batman!
'wanted' is my all-time least favorite comic ever. i highly don't recommend it. if you still want something by mark millar, try the ultimates instead.
ARROWSMITH is indeed a fun comic, and Busiek and Pacheco are supposed to be doing more issues of it this year. I don't remember if it's just a one shot or a mini series, and I don't remember where I read about it.
alright I'm going to put in a request for some recommendations.
For me the art is the most important thing in a comic book. I require a good story, deep characters and setting etc., but the quality of art must be there to hold my attention.
I'm more interested in graphic novels since I don't feel like commiting to a huge story arcs and don't want to go digging for a thousand and one back issues.
also, not really too interested in superhero comics, but I'm willing to make exceptions.
books I've enjoyed:
blade of the immortal
the goon
akira
sin city
30 days of night
books that look interesting:
hellboy
the nocturnals
marquis danse macabre
garlands of moonlight
harlequin valentine
metabarons
Fables looked promising, but the art was pretty bland so it didn't stick with me.
recommend away.
you should definitely check out the losers then. it's about a black ops CIA team betrayed by the company and their attempts to find out who turned on them and how best to kill that person. it's a lot of fun and the art is really terrific. unfortunately i can't seem to find any particularly good pages on GIS, but you can check out the artist's website here and at least get a sense of if you think you'd like his style.
Hellboy has a really distinctive art style that I found excellent. There are a few samples and so on online (The Coffin leaps to mind and is a complete little story) and it'll give you a good idea of the quality of the art and the overall feel.
For something completely different, something that you can read for your kid (or your siblings' demon spawn, or whatever) and at the same time have quite some fun with yourself:
The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa.
Don Rosa at his best is an incredible storyteller, doing for the Donald Duck universe the same thing that Pixar's done for animated movies: Creating stories that are fun for -everyone- to read. For one thing, he's great at putting lots of small details and gags in almost every frame, and it can take plenty of read-throughs to find them all. And like his idol (and worth a mention in his own rights) Carl Barks, Don Rosa is also putting a lot of real-world details into his stories. I know that some people grew up to become archeologists thanks to Barks' stories, and I have no doubt that Rosa's had a similar influence by now.
In any case, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a 12-chapter epos about Scrooge, the character that Don himself finds the most interesting. And Scrooge is in fact a very interesting character in Rosa's capable hands. The stories of his gains and of his loss, of -why- he's keeping so much money in one building... it's stuff that I would recommend to anyone who thought themselves otherwise grown out of the Donald Duck stories (and with almost any other duck author, you'd be right about that).
I honestly wish I could wash my mind free of it. Also nice move breaking the fourth wall on the last page there. Still how did that get a movie adaptation? It was fucking horrible.
The title character looks like Eminem. American moviegoers will support torture-porn movies like the SAW and HOSTEL franchises. Angelina Jolie will look hot.
It really says something about your product when the best thing about it is that it has a monster made out of the shit of the 666 most evil men on earth.
That being said I was nearly burned off of graphic novels for a while there but I have decided to give it another shot.
So what graphic novels should I look for? I'm thinking Pride of Baghdad and The Watchmen but beyond that I don't know what to look for. It has to have great art and I'd prefer it wasn't about costumed superheroes but I'm willing to make an exception (I've heard too many good things about The Watchmen to pass it up).
Honestly I'm not sure. I'm not so very interested in traditional superheroes though, unless it's Batman. Slice of life doesn't sound that interesting either. Pretty much just whatever you think is noteworthy recomend it and I'll give it a look.
Here's some of my favorite self-contained, non-superhero stuff. Most of it is serialized stuff, but the trades are easy to come by.
Fear Agent- When Earth is invaded by aliens an organization arises to combat them; the Fear Agents. Heath Huston stars as the last surviving Fear Agent. The series follows his exploits as a redneck shitkicker dedicated to kicking alien ass.
Arrowsmith- WWII with magic. The book follows the young protagonist as he comes face to face with the horrors of war, losing friends, making new ones, and slowly losing his exuberance and youthful optimism as he's forced to endure tragedy after tragedy.
Ex Machina- A civil engineer is given superpowers, becomes a superhero, realizes he sucks at it, and becomes a liberal mayor in New York city. He's forced to deal with paranormal oddities, wackos, and politicians, with his elderly friend constantly scheming to get him back into his superhero costume.
Y the Last Man- A twenty-something loser survives a horrible plague to become the last man on Earth. Teamed with a badass government agent and a canny biologist, he must keep himself safe from government agents, roving gangs, and psychopaths, all while trying to find a way to repopulate the Earth and remain true to his long-distance girlfriend.
Monthly comics I read and love are Immortal Iron Fist, Fear Agent, Casanova, Black Summer.
Some of my favorite graphic novels/collections are Scott Pilgrim, WE3, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Paul Pope's Heavy Liquid, Batman Year 100, 100%, V for Vendetta. Have you read Watchmen?
I suggest you look into any of those. I am also a huge fan of the Hellboy/BPRD stuff, but that is not for everyone. Same for Tom Strong.
I'm getting the Watchmen because I've heard so many good things about it. Hellboy and BPRD I've seen but only leafed through on occasion, they're nice but not for me. Though I did like the movie.
I'll be giving some of these a gander, but I'm not going to be able to buy many because I'm a bit tight on money.
Hellboy is awesome too but the first storyline is probably the worst, after that Mignola started writing them himself. (I think Byrne scripted the first volume?)
Can I suggest we have a section for "Golden Age/Silver Age" comics? I'd love to know what the cream of the older material was, and which TPBs and hardcovers collect them best, but frankly I have no idea where to start.
I'm trying to subscribe to the new Dark Tower series from marvel for a friend as birthday present.
Problem is that I don't seem to find a button to order in the website. Help?
I'm curious if someone could help me find a comic artist, or group, that is familiar with black, urban culture. I have heard of "In-Cog-Negro," but that appears focused on 1950's-60's southern United States.
I'm interested in pitching a story about some high school kids who start traveling to another world where the people use swords and shields, and there are elements of gang behavior amongst the group that does the traveling. (And by the way, the high school kids are the nerds that get picked on by everyone.)
I call it "A Gang of Daggers" for those not familiar, and think it would work in comic format.
what makes you think a comic book about "black urban culture" would be at all relevant to your ridiculous gang of daggers thing about nerds playing some WoW like 'game' that turns out to be a reality and everything they kill is really alive and everything?
I don't believe it's been mentioned but what about The Invisibles? Brilliant in my opinion, conspiracy theories and what not. All masterminded by Morrison
what makes you think a comic book about "black urban culture" would be at all relevant to your ridiculous gang of daggers thing about nerds playing some WoW like 'game' that turns out to be a reality and everything they kill is really alive and everything?
It takes the idea of Jack Thompson that "violent video games breed violent kids" and turns it on it's head, because the boys do violent acts, and train for it, on this other world, and yet return to earth and keep low profiles.
Writing about a bunch of white, nerdy high schoolers does not carry the same weight as having some of the kids be black. When they start exhibiting gang-like behaviors, it is supposed to shock the audience to see what the boys have become.
And I want a person who is familiar with black, urban culture because I am curious what it would look like if the boys started decorating (adding "bling") to their armor. There are more reasons, but believe me, the intentions are good, and I think the outcome would look amazing.
My belief that the majority of people are fuckwads means that, when I call someone a fuckwad, I am erring on the side of caution. To suggest they were not a fuckwad would be betting against the odds, and I have always been a conservative gambler.
I think I got into trouble the time I called a mod a fuckwad, however. Can't remember which one it was, but he was being a complete asshat.
I got sort of lucky when I went on this mini-rant in one of the games & technology threads about how the mods in those threads tend to think they are a whole lot more important than they actually are considering that they are just forum moderators on a random site. Somehow it slipped by everybody and it surprised me. However, this is the recommendation thread so I must make one I suppose, so I recommend Nightwing as a GREAT title to read if you want to ease your way into the DC Universe. He's a focal character that is close with everybody so by reading his title you slowly become more and more ingrained with key characters in the DCU. Plus right now you've got the team of Tomasi & Morales and that's a plus.
Is this Sky guy serious? I mean I've heard of Gang of Daggers and how it was bad and I should feel bad, but surely he can't be serious about it now right?
Anyway I don't think I've mentioned it yet but I have The Watchmen on the way, and it should be here in a couple days.
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'wanted' is my all-time least favorite comic ever. i highly don't recommend it. if you still want something by mark millar, try the ultimates instead.
For me the art is the most important thing in a comic book. I require a good story, deep characters and setting etc., but the quality of art must be there to hold my attention.
I'm more interested in graphic novels since I don't feel like commiting to a huge story arcs and don't want to go digging for a thousand and one back issues.
also, not really too interested in superhero comics, but I'm willing to make exceptions.
books I've enjoyed:
blade of the immortal
the goon
akira
sin city
30 days of night
books that look interesting:
hellboy
the nocturnals
marquis danse macabre
garlands of moonlight
harlequin valentine
metabarons
Fables looked promising, but the art was pretty bland so it didn't stick with me.
recommend away.
The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa.
Don Rosa at his best is an incredible storyteller, doing for the Donald Duck universe the same thing that Pixar's done for animated movies: Creating stories that are fun for -everyone- to read. For one thing, he's great at putting lots of small details and gags in almost every frame, and it can take plenty of read-throughs to find them all. And like his idol (and worth a mention in his own rights) Carl Barks, Don Rosa is also putting a lot of real-world details into his stories. I know that some people grew up to become archeologists thanks to Barks' stories, and I have no doubt that Rosa's had a similar influence by now.
In any case, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a 12-chapter epos about Scrooge, the character that Don himself finds the most interesting. And Scrooge is in fact a very interesting character in Rosa's capable hands. The stories of his gains and of his loss, of -why- he's keeping so much money in one building... it's stuff that I would recommend to anyone who thought themselves otherwise grown out of the Donald Duck stories (and with almost any other duck author, you'd be right about that).
I honestly wish I could wash my mind free of it. Also nice move breaking the fourth wall on the last page there. Still how did that get a movie adaptation? It was fucking horrible.
That being said I was nearly burned off of graphic novels for a while there but I have decided to give it another shot.
So what graphic novels should I look for? I'm thinking Pride of Baghdad and The Watchmen but beyond that I don't know what to look for. It has to have great art and I'd prefer it wasn't about costumed superheroes but I'm willing to make an exception (I've heard too many good things about The Watchmen to pass it up).
Fear Agent- When Earth is invaded by aliens an organization arises to combat them; the Fear Agents. Heath Huston stars as the last surviving Fear Agent. The series follows his exploits as a redneck shitkicker dedicated to kicking alien ass.
Arrowsmith- WWII with magic. The book follows the young protagonist as he comes face to face with the horrors of war, losing friends, making new ones, and slowly losing his exuberance and youthful optimism as he's forced to endure tragedy after tragedy.
Ex Machina- A civil engineer is given superpowers, becomes a superhero, realizes he sucks at it, and becomes a liberal mayor in New York city. He's forced to deal with paranormal oddities, wackos, and politicians, with his elderly friend constantly scheming to get him back into his superhero costume.
Y the Last Man- A twenty-something loser survives a horrible plague to become the last man on Earth. Teamed with a badass government agent and a canny biologist, he must keep himself safe from government agents, roving gangs, and psychopaths, all while trying to find a way to repopulate the Earth and remain true to his long-distance girlfriend.
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Some of my favorite graphic novels/collections are Scott Pilgrim, WE3, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Paul Pope's Heavy Liquid, Batman Year 100, 100%, V for Vendetta. Have you read Watchmen?
I suggest you look into any of those. I am also a huge fan of the Hellboy/BPRD stuff, but that is not for everyone. Same for Tom Strong.
I'll be giving some of these a gander, but I'm not going to be able to buy many because I'm a bit tight on money.
And it is so good.
Problem is that I don't seem to find a button to order in the website. Help?
I'm interested in pitching a story about some high school kids who start traveling to another world where the people use swords and shields, and there are elements of gang behavior amongst the group that does the traveling. (And by the way, the high school kids are the nerds that get picked on by everyone.)
I call it "A Gang of Daggers" for those not familiar, and think it would work in comic format.
Thanks in advance.
what makes you think a comic book about "black urban culture" would be at all relevant to your ridiculous gang of daggers thing about nerds playing some WoW like 'game' that turns out to be a reality and everything they kill is really alive and everything?
It takes the idea of Jack Thompson that "violent video games breed violent kids" and turns it on it's head, because the boys do violent acts, and train for it, on this other world, and yet return to earth and keep low profiles.
Writing about a bunch of white, nerdy high schoolers does not carry the same weight as having some of the kids be black. When they start exhibiting gang-like behaviors, it is supposed to shock the audience to see what the boys have become.
And I want a person who is familiar with black, urban culture because I am curious what it would look like if the boys started decorating (adding "bling") to their armor. There are more reasons, but believe me, the intentions are good, and I think the outcome would look amazing.
A good comic no one has probably heard of him is Silent Dragon. That was a cool comic.
I think I got into trouble the time I called a mod a fuckwad, however. Can't remember which one it was, but he was being a complete asshat.
Anyway I don't think I've mentioned it yet but I have The Watchmen on the way, and it should be here in a couple days.
Everyone should read WE3. Everyone.