Comics, etc.

mrlogical wrote:

I agree, Lemire is very good with a sort of lonely melancholy. I really connected with his recent Royal City series on a similar level, and was disappointed it was cut short (he wrote an essay in the last issue that basically said "I had planned for this to be a much longer story but it was really bumming me out so I decided to end it at 3 volumes instead," which, fair enough I guess). I need to re-read Essex County.

That’s kind of funny, that he bummed himself out. Interesting...

Used Marvel unlimited for the first since getting D+, looks like those accounts are linked now.

It's too much to hope that linked means "a D+ subscription gets you MU as well", I presume?

Feegle wrote:

It's too much to hope that linked means "a D+ subscription gets you MU as well", I presume?

Yes.
All it means is that Disney went through all the things they own and consolidated/connected the accounts.

Now that Kirkman is done with Walking Dead looks like he's going to spin Iron Fist with Fire Power, the same way he spun Superman/boy with Invincible. I'm VERY excited!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/a...

Halp! I got a free month of Comixology. What I should read? I've never regularly read comics so anything’s up for grabs. Here is my pile of shame so far:

Y The Last Man
Invincible
Irredeemable
Attack on Titan
Locke & Key

I think I’m going to skip Umbrella Academy and The Boys because I’m watching the tv shows.

Any others I’m missing?

Be careful, because Comixology subs just get you the first volumes. If you fall in love with a bunch of series, you'll have to buy the rest of the stories!

That said, you should go read all the Brubaker/Philips stuff you can, like Criminal, Incognito, etc. It's all god-tier.

I also adore FEAR Agent and have read it twice. You mentioned Locke & Key which is frequently my number one reccomendation.

The Dark Horse published Conan books were really good, at least at first, before I got distracted.

Since you're reading some indie superhero stuff, I highly recommend Hypernaturals, which is a cosmic superhero book.

Unwritten is great but it's a loooooooooong read. I'm still not done.

PaladinTom wrote:

Halp! I got a free month of Comixology. What I should read? I've never regularly read comics so anything’s up for grabs. Here is my pile of shame so far:

Y The Last Man
Invincible
Irredeemable
Attack on Titan
Locke & Key

I think I’m going to skip Umbrella Academy and The Boys because I’m watching the tv shows.

Any others I’m missing?

Fedaykin98 makes a good point. They hook you with the first volume, and if you want more, then you have to pay. But here you have two complete series you can check out:

If you are at all interested in the Transformers universe (or if you just like fun adventures in space), I urge to read More Than Meets the Eye, by James Roberts and Alex Milne. They have all ten volumes available, and the series is OUTSTANDING (at least the first five volumes, which is what I've read so far).

Secondly, they also have all eight or nine volumes of Rachel Rising, by Terry Moore. Granted, I have only read the first one, but I loved it, so if you like Moore's work, I would definitely recommend it.

Rachel Rising is great and by far Moore's best work

Ugh. You're right. None of the series I wanted to read are complete.

Comixology Unlimited? It should be called Comixology Very Limited.

Ah well, seemed to good to be true. Thanks for the recommendations though!

Yeah. But now you have to remember to cancel your subscription. As do I.

The Kurt Busiek authored Conan comics are fantastic! He adapted the original stories to comic form, and just made them flow better, IMO. Fun fact: The original author of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard, is given credit as the inventor of the sword and sorcery genre.

Short rant:

So, as a result of my secret Santa gift, I picked up all three trades of Gail Simone's current run on Domino. And don't get me wrong, Simone's a great writer still...

.....but I think I'm getting really, really, really tired of hyper-competent protagonists, and between her abilities and her mutant power, fight scenes with Domino feel (to me) utterly drama-free and boring, because the possibility of her ever taking an L, in any way, has been rendered functionally impossible.

I think my tastes have just changed, because I've read the first two trades of Stumptown, and that is exactly how I like my protagonists depicted. They'll win in the end, but they'll take some ass-kickings along the way (I'd argue that this trope of Noir detective fiction is something the TV show is sorely missing).

But I think my issue here is basically taste, because my issue with this run of Domino is one that I've run into in several other superhero comics. They've only got so many pages to work with, so there's not necessarily the time and space to give it a little more time to breathe and have more up and downs.

But lord, I wish we'd tone down the power fantasy a tad and let them be more fallible, physically and mentally. I don't need to see the hero lose every fight, but the ones I love the most are the ones I have been led to believe can absolutely get their asses kicked without it taking some special confluence of events. I like the notion that sometimes characters can try their hardest and still get beaten, and you lick your wounds, come back, and either try again or figure out a smarter way to win.

All of this and I'd still absolutely recommend the run so far, even if I find most of the fight scenes perfunctory and boring for the aforementioned reasons.

I’m not super happy with what Marvel is doing to Iron Man. They just started a new storyline that seems to be taking all the sharks the Iron Man series has jumped over the last ten years and is trying to jump them all at the same time.

I did not care for Y The Last Man. Irredeemable isn't as good as the companion series, Incorruptible, not by a long shot.

But, you know, it seems like you're not going to read those anyway, so...

Big Comixology sale on Image's various crime comics right now, and the category is very loosely defined. Here are some I wholeheartedly recommend:

Chew
Criminal
Kill or be Killed
Nailbiter
Roche Limit vol 1
The Fade Out
The Fuse

Most of those books have been discussed here through the years, but I'm happy to elaborate if anyone wants to discuss them now.

I've only read Chew out of all those, but I second that recommendation wholeheartedly. The whole series is phenomenal!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Big Comixology sale on Image's various crime comics right now, and the category is very loosely defined. Here are some I wholeheartedly recommend:

Chew
Criminal
Kill or be Killed
Nailbiter
Roche Limit vol 1
The Fade Out
The Fuse

Most of those books have been discussed here through the years, but I'm happy to elaborate if anyone wants to discuss them now.

I can definitely recommend "Criminal" and "The Fade Out". Great series!

@TAZ - I'm not sure I've read anything by Brubaker and Philips that wasn't excellent. If you haven't read Kill or be Killed yet, this is a great opportunity!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

@TAZ - I'm not sure I've read anything by Brubaker and Philips that wasn't excellent. If you haven't read Kill or be Killed yet, this is a great opportunity!

In the past week I've read Criminal (awesome) and Incognito (more awesome) and have picked up Fatale, Kill or be Killed and Fade Out from the local library.

Thanks for the recs .

I've also reserved from the library the Darth Vader 1-3 that's written by Kieron Gillen. I haven't read this much comics in 25 years.

I'm just coming to the end of a big Sandman re-read. It's been really good coming back to these books, some of which I've not read in 20 years. I got Overture for Christmas a couple of years back and never got around to reading it, so just about to start that one to finish off the series.

I'm also reading Saga for the first time at the moment. I'm up to book 3 and it really is as good as people said it was.

Also currently making my way through the huge Batman No Man's Land storyline and enjoying that, too. Batman has always been my go-to in comics, I own more Batman books than everything else combined, I'd say.

Some of my other favorite series are Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Gotham Central, Fables (still not finished it, though).

I recently read Blankets by Craig Thompson, and thought it was exceptional. One of the best things I've read in years.

Whats a good DC story line from a few years back? Has to be from a few years back so I can read it on DC Universe. Read injustice, rebirth, blackish night, superman/batman, crisis, vampire batman and a wacky harley quinn series I forget the name of. Might not have had a name. She had crew that dressed like her, it was dumb but fun.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Whats a good DC story line from a few years back? Has to be from a few years back so I can read it on DC Universe. Read injustice, rebirth, blackish night, superman/batman, crisis, vampire batman and a wacky harley quinn series I forget the name of. Might not have had a name. She had crew that dressed like her, it was dumb but fun.

I'm not sure about the wider DC remit, but for Batman:

Knightfall was and still is excellent. You must have read that already though? It's the tale of when Bane breaks Batman, and he has to hand control to another vigilante who goes a little rogue. It was already a long series, but the new editions add a lot of padding and it's worth trying to read the old editions if you have access to them.

Leading on from that both Contagion and Legacy are excellent parts of the same story in which a deadly virus takes over Gotham City. Those books then lead on to the No Man's Land storyline which is pretty epic and ran for over a year. This is what I'm currently making my way through and it's among the best Batman I've read. Start with Cataclysm, in which Gotham gets hit by a huge earthquake before moving on to Aftershock (included in newer editions of Cataclysm) and Road To No Man's Land, then the main series itself.

Have you read the New 52 run? Starting with Court Of The Owls, Synder's run on Batman is among my favourite of all time.

Also, Gotham Central was an exceptionally good almost Wire-esque police procedural in which the Bat barely makes an appearance. It's really vying for top spot with Sandman for my all time favourite series. Honestly, it's very, very good.

And finally, I curated myself a bit of a reading list a couple of years ago that I found really interesting. I wanted to look at how each Robin came to be Robin, and ended up with a selection of books which can be found here: https://gamesihaveplayed.wordpress.c...

Hope some of that was any use to you. Depends on how much you like Batman I suppose!

Thanks, I did read Knightfall and also read Gotham Central. I liked Gotham but wish they made it like Gotham Central.

Haven't read the others so I'll check those out.

Crunchyroll is working on an animated adaptation of Warren Ellis' post-apocalyptic steampunk webcomic FREAKANGELS (which is apparently now only available in print form as Avatar appears to have taken down the website). The show is supposed to release later this year.

The most recent compilation of Stumptown (Volume 4, I believe) is the one I think could be most easily turned into an episode of the TV show with few, if any changes.

....that's not quite a compliment.

Anyway, I'm also reading the big, collected version of Gail Simone's Red Sonja run, and it is very good. It neatly manages to avoid the gripes I mentioned upthread of her current run with Domino.

I also bought Garth Ennis' Sara, because "Garth Ennis wrote a comic about a WWII Russian sniper" is something I am in on immediately.

I just finished the first Alan Moore Saga Of The Swamp Thing book and enjoyed it. Been meaning to read them for years and got the first two trades for Christmas.

I'm also making my way through the entire Bat-Family Rebirth run and also Doomsday Clock. Great so far.

If anyone here is a Top Cow fan or is interested in the Witchblade/Darkness universe, check out this Humble Bundle.

Marvel has some free comics available (civil war, dark phoenix, etc). Just go to their website ou use the marvel unlimited app (no sign up required).

We lost Juan Giménez to the old covids the other day.
Best known for his work on the metabarons with Alejandro Jodorowsky.
I'm not big into comics but I'm a huge Jodorowsky fan and the artwork in those is really great.

I am so puzzled by the local comic book store near me. I order most of my comics by mail from DCBS, but pop into the lcs near me basically every two months when I am in town to get a haircut. I like the idea of supporting a local shop, but between it being a little too far out of my way to be convenient enough to set up a pull list and the deeper discounts I get from DCBS, it hasn't made sense for me to shop there regularly. But in the present crisis, if they were offering like curbside pickup and discounted trades or backissues or something, I'd totally order a good pile of stuff from them. I looked the shop up on Facebook, though, and they don't have any updates since like 2017 and I called them once last week and no one answered. I don't get it!