Comics & Graphic Novels Megathread

[redruM]

Ok so the idea behind this thread is to post and debate about any comics/graphic novels you're into. Personally, I'm a fan of Sin City, Hard Boiled is awesomely brutal, too. Recently I got into 100 Bullets, it's a crime thriller with a deep story and it really sucks you in. It's an ongoing series, issue 88 of 100 is coming out on the 13th of February. Check this out to find out more.So go ahead and post your favorite stuff.

 

[Darkside55]

I read lots of different comics, but very few do I read regularly. The last thing I read on a constant basis was Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, because I was following that arc. I like to see a plot through to its end; afterwards, it depends on what the next arc is.

I like one-shots for that reason. I read a lot of DC Elseworlds because they're self-contained, and as a person who doesn't really keep up with the DCU the Elseworlds series are a way to enjoy a nice, quick storyline without having to dredge through back issues for past events and references. Things like Red Son and Gotham by Gaslight. I also read Batman graphic novels in the regular universe because those tend to be one-shots too; things like Arkham Asylum or The Killing Joke.

I try and keep up with what's going on in comics, though, so I read important ones...well, for Marvel anyway. Like I said I really don't know DC; I don't, for example, know much about Countdown and 52.

I also read stuff like Hellboy and Goon, I used to read Grendel, stuff from Dark Horse and Image, some things under DC's Vertigo label. Also from time to time I'll read foreign comics, things like Melusine and Sky Doll and Cyber Six. Lots of different stuff.

 

[Sulkdodds]

OH SHI -

I like comics quite a lot.

Does anyone know of Cerebus the Aardvark?

 

[Darkside55]

I know of it; never read it though. Well, in Spawn #10 Cerberus showed up, so technically I did read a little about him.

 

[Eejit]

My sister is really into comics, so I always just read a bunch of hers when I visit her or we both visit home at Christmas or whatever.

I've read a bunch of the Marvel "Essential" series of compilations for X-Men, Spiderman, and Wolverine. Also a couple of the Elseworlds from DC. I read the core stories of the Marvel Civil War series, and I've read compilations of previous similar over-arcs like Crisis on Infinite Worlds from DC, the Apocalypse and Pheonix/Dark Pheonix from Marvel. Also other small compilations such as Death of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns.

I've also read some of Joss Whedon's Xmen comics, Frank Miller's 300 and a few other bits and pieces.

As for Dark Horse, not a whole lot. A bunch of the Conan comics but that's about it.

 

[soulslicer]

TinTin, is my favourite comic series of all time..

 

[Sulkdodds]

I know of it; never read it though. Well, in Spawn #10 Cerberus showed up, so technically I did read a little about him.

It's worth looking at, especially if you can get a 'phonebook', or trade paperback, from a local library. Or download it lulz. High Society is a good place to start if you can't start at the beginning.

It's funny because the author, by the end of writing the comic (300 issues!), had converted to a weirdo aggregate religion and had become a raving mysoginist. Of course, he was always a bit of a twat. But I couldn't really give two shits about who or what he is; what matters to me 'll be what's in the text. That's one long text...

I'm currently writing a comic myself. It's about a mismatched dynamic duo of occult detectives, freelance witch-finders, in an intricate fantasy world where the economy is based on the monetary worth of each nation's King, and the business of government is conducted according to poetic rules. But I don't have much time so progress is slow. And I could draw it myself but I would rather not.

 

[Darkside55]

I'll might take a trip down to the comics store this weekend and look for it (I live out in a remote area and the nearest comic store's about half-an-hour away).

Your comic idea sounds intriguing. "Witch-finders," is magic outlawed? Or do they just hunt rogue magic users?

I'm writing a comic as well--or rather it's already written, the entire run's complete, but I'm also hung up on the drawing. The difference is, I WILL draw it myself, if only because I don't trust anybody else with it. But I want to get much better as an artist before I make the attempt. It has to be perfect because, in all the things I've ever written, this story's the thing I put the most love into.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It's not exactly that magic is universally outlawed; religion around where they live is a vague polytheism that is more composed of customs and traditions than theological debate (although the rise of monotheism as a mystery cult and, later, a proper religion, is a connecting plot thread). But there is a general climate of fear, ignorance and distrust of the supernatural - a knowing that it exists, but an unknowing about it. Think Shakespeare plays - the atmosphere of the world is part elizabethan london theatre scene, part Waiting for Godot, part Beowulf. And as in beowulf what we would call 'occult' (which has very versus-christianity connotations) might more accurately be described in the comic-people's idiom as Wyrd - strange, fateful. "Unknowable but certain."

So it's not that the subject is forbidden, but rather out of most people's reach - a mysterious life, distant lights. That's where our inquisitor-poets come in. They tend to be investigators for hire - oh my son has been kidnapped by cultists help / hello I am an overworked bureaucrat something is spooking the cattle around here. Because no kingdom yet has a formalised police - some have secret police, but they are more thugs than anything - they easily get mixed up in things, wyrd or otherwise.

'The Occult', however, is very often code for the hidden forces and cyphers that move in society - the norms, assumptions and gnostic truths or systems unaccountable to reason, strange in their effects, elusive to find. The dark things hidden in the cracks of politics. Because society is so heavily aestheticised, and art is generally held to be political, the two detectives are very aware of their function as not only interrogators of the literal spiritual, but also of the ghosts of power.

As the shorter, meaner one of the duo hisses while questioning a courtier: "We're not artists. We're critics."

Skilled in recognising and dealing with the supernatural, armed only with steel determination and absurdist humour, they come as travelling spies, gypsy detectives, on a holy mission to question and destablise. Boom!

 

[Jintor]

I'm reading (but not buying... heh) Powers, which is an awesome series even if it gets a little ****ed up weird and the creators don't seem to have the same sense of continuity everybody else does. It's about Superheroes... but the main characters are normal police detectives in a ground division, and a lot of it is about how Powers seriously **** everything over. So in a sense it's a 'realistic' superhero story, although, uh, that's sort of a contradiction. More accurate to say it's a realistic portrayal of what life would be like if Powers actually existed. Art style is very zany, too.

Sandman and Lucifer are the two Vertigo Graphic Novels I read, too. If I could find a copy of the new Blue Beetle's other collections I'd grab it, but it's not out yet here. I'm having a look over 52 and Countdown... still no idea what's seriously going on. New Frontier was seriously awesome though.

Sulkdodds, it totally sounds interesting.

 

[StardogChampion]

Here's a few I have to read:

Y: The Last Man
Ex Machina #1: The First Hundred Days

 

[knut]

I'm telling you - The Walking Dead comics/collections would appeal to all of you's zombie fans that make up the L4D and Zombie Con forums. Or just people in general. Fantastic stuff.

 

[Herr Mike]

Walking Dead is superb, it would appeal to anyone. And you can get hardcovers, which they keep in print.

 

[CptStern]

ya Dave Sim was hit or miss ...mostly miss


lost interest in superhero comics in the late 80's but read underground comics for about 5 years and then just stopped altogether


guys in spandex in my opinion is where comics are the weakest ..there's just a shit load of non superhero north american comics that are simply brilliant ..everything from Speigleman's Maus to David Lapham's Stray Bullets to Love and Rockets ...really you're doing yourself a disservice if you only follow one specific genre of comics

 

[Sulkdodds]

Having 'acquired' all of Cerebus I'm now at the beginning of the Jaka's Story arc. It's all pretty brilliant so far, but I'll be interested to see how things develop as Sim inevitably goes nutso. I've read his mysoginistic rants before. They're just...sigh.

Oh yeah: From Hell. That's wonderful.

 

[Darkside55]

I'm telling you - The Walking Dead comics/collections would appeal to all of you's zombie fans that make up the L4D and Zombie Con forums. Or just people in general. Fantastic stuff.

Walking Dead tends more often than not to be a good example of what NOT to do in a zombie invasion. I've read some of it, but I don't have any plans on reading further.

Anyone ever read those old zombie horror comics? The ones that were mostly by independent publishers? Creepy stuff, those, although pulpy.

 

[Direwolf]

About the only stuff I can be relied upon to keep up with regularly are the Hellboy and related series, and I'm even slow on those. Other than that I tend to just grab the really singular works (Watchmen, The Dark Knight, etc). Been reading bits and pieces of the Goon and Y, both of which I really like, but my comics budget usually takes a back seat to my normal reading budget.