Anyone currently reading comics?

[ATenderLad]

Scott Pilgrim...

Y'all, I know this is for talking about comic books, but you're getting *virgin* all over my nice thread.





Just kidding, I read Scott Pilgrim quite a ways back, the contrast of the very cartoon art style and video game references with the surprisingly honest and adult admissions about relationships makes it memorable, no doubt. Notably, it doesn't portray Scott as a besmirched guy who got his heart broken through no fault of his own - there's countless examples, but my favorite one to point out is Tommy Wiseau's The Room - instead, we see that he just doesn't think about other people. Pretty much everyone in the book is shown to be the same, twenty-somethings still wrapped up in themselves; the Evil Ex's don't care what Ramona wants, Ramona ditched each of them without doing the emotional heavy lifting of resolving the relationships in the first place, everything with Kim....everyones struggling to be the adult who picks up the phone and says "I don't love you anymore, sorry, let's get lunch sometime."

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

I'm not that interested in the common superhero ones, but I do like some Belgian ones like Asterix and Hergé TinTin.
If you count comic strips, I like the old Peanuts gang and some South American ones like Mafalda, Barrabases, Mampato among others.

 

[Ikagura]

I'm not that interested in the common superhero ones, but I do like some Belgian ones like Asterix and Hergé TinTin.
If you count comic strips, I like the old Peanuts gang and some South American ones like Mafalda, Barrabases, Mampato among others.

Old Tintin has a "stiff" style (and some are considered "problematic" today) but I enjoyed the Moon dualogy.

 

[marky]

Now I've started reading Star Wars Crimson Regin

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Scott Pilgrim...

Y'all, I know this is for talking about comic books, but you're getting *virgin* all over my nice thread.





Just kidding, I read Scott Pilgrim quite a ways back, the contrast of the very cartoon art style and video game references with the surprisingly honest and adult admissions about relationships makes it memorable, no doubt. Notably, it doesn't portray Scott as a besmirched guy who got his heart broken through no fault of his own - there's countless examples, but my favorite one to point out is Tommy Wiseau's The Room - instead, we see that he just doesn't think about other people. Pretty much everyone in the book is shown to be the same, twenty-somethings still wrapped up in themselves; the Evil Ex's don't care what Ramona wants, Ramona ditched each of them without doing the emotional heavy lifting of resolving the relationships in the first place, everything with Kim....everyones struggling to be the adult who picks up the phone and says "I don't love you anymore, sorry, let's get lunch sometime."

Scott shouldve run for the swiss alps with the might of speedy gonzales when she mentioned she had 7 exes at 24

 

[Tbest25]

I'm reading the Silver Surfer saga from the beginning.

 

[Jotaro]

i barely read any comics atm

but, if i had to say, a recent one, it was these 2 series (at least 2 years, its been since i had read them)

 

[Nidstang]

I read Ninja Turtles pretty heavily. I favor the Mirage and IDW runs, but I like all of them in some capacity. TMNT will always be my favorite comic related property.

I also read some indies, primarily the Iconic Comics stuff like Kamen America, Black Hops, and Soulfinder. And the old EU-era Star Wars comics. I don't like modern/Disney Star Wars much at all, but I love the original EU continuity. Some great comics there, my favorite being Crimson Empire currently.

 

[ATenderLad]

Now I've started reading Star Wars Crimson Regin

I think I only ever read the Doctor Aphra portion - and to tell the truth, I didn't clock there was an event happening - but I wanted to note that the Darth Vader series prior to that one by Kieron Gillen is probably the best bit of Star Wars comics ever made. Amazing stuff.

i barely read any comics atm

but, if i had to say, a recent one, it was these 2 series (at least 2 years, its been since i had read them)

I'm not familiar with the latter, gonna have to look it up, but Astro City is this long-time glaring "To-Be-Read" that I've had sitting around. Kurt Busiek was writing the Avengers back when I was buying comics for myself for the first time, and while he's a bit of a nerd even by comic author standards, I loved his books. (Although his Avengers run was most pencilled by the legend, George Perez, so that might be part of my nostalgia.)

I read Ninja Turtles pretty heavily. I favor the Mirage and IDW runs, but I like all of them in some capacity. TMNT will always be my favorite comic related property.

You know, it's kinda funny, I've always liked TMNT but from other media; the show, the movies, games, so on. Other than the original Daredevil parody stuff, I've never read their comics.

 

[Jotaro]

I'm not familiar with the latter, gonna have to look it up,

a quick summary, about penultiman would be:

penultiman is a superman type from the future. In the far future, he's considered a throwback because he's a peak athletic specimen in a world of humans who have all evolved their minds. They send him back to our time because they are all disgusted by him, penultiman has been sent to modern earth from the far future, where as the name suggests, he's the next to last stage in human evolution. So the ultimate humans, disgusted by this primitive throwback with his hair and sex characteristics, send him back to a barbaric age filled with humans even more primitive than himself, while superheroic by the feeble standards of modern people, is aware from the off that he's a reject, the rest of the book is basically a superhero trying to keep it together while overcome by self-loathing and having a breakdown at his own apparent pointlessness

underrated series, just like astro city, good series, overall

 

[SolemnlyDoc]

I'm trying to read Psylocke (the 2009 run by Yost and Tolibao) but as much as I like the character, I'm just not that into it.

I did just finish Red Hood and the Outlaws which was... interesting. The run with Arsenal and Starfire is just weird but I still liked it. I'm a big Red Hood fan though so it would be hard for me to dislike one of his stories

 

[ATenderLad]

I'm trying to read Psylocke (the 2009 run by Yost and Tolibao) but as much as I like the character, I'm just not that into it.

I did just finish Red Hood and the Outlaws which was... interesting. The run with Arsenal and Starfire is just weird but I still liked it. I'm a big Red Hood fan though so it would be hard for me to dislike one of his stories

Oof, yeah that mini-series by Yost was rough. It's buried in old lore for a story no one is really a big fan of, it's derivative of a lot of the Claremont/Miller "Wolverine goes to Japan" stories, and it really struggles with it's core theme. Ostensibly, it's about Betsy Braddock finding herself, and burying the past...except, she'd already made peace with the target of her vengeance, and the story doesn't really bring out a new side of Psylocke by the end. Very underwhelming, I thought.

 

[Mr. Daddy]

I've been reading a lot of golden age and early silver age things lately. The vast majority of my comics experience has been more modern runs and events, but I quickly learned that I'm quite fond of that "anything can happen" feeling era. In particular I love the Fawcett Comics run of Captain Marvel (Shazam). You give me a scientist villain intelligent enough to mathematically figure out exactly the right time to phase through a wall without superpowers, I'm having a good time.

 

[ATenderLad]

I've been reading a lot of golden age and early silver age things lately. The vast majority of my comics experience has been more modern runs and events, but I quickly learned that I'm quite fond of that "anything can happen" feeling era. In particular I love the Fawcett Comics run of Captain Marvel (Shazam). You give me a scientist villain intelligent enough to mathematically figure out exactly the right time to phase through a wall without superpowers, I'm having a good time.

I saw you explaining your profile picture earlier, I knew you'd step into my parlor.

You're in good company there though, Lord knows Alan Moore and Grant Morrison love that period of comics. They just made up anything and called it science, like Superman with his super-ventriloquism, or following a radio signal backwards through time (?) by spinning super fast to vibrate (??) thus penetrating the temporal membrane (mother your toast is burning)?

 

[Mr. Daddy]

I saw you explaining your profile picture earlier, I knew you'd step into my parlor.

You're in good company there though, Lord knows Alan Moore and Grant Morrison love that period of comics. They just made up anything and called it science, like Superman with his super-ventriloquism, or following a radio signal backwards through time (?) by spinning super fast to vibrate (??) thus penetrating the temporal membrane (mother your toast is burning)?

My personal favorite instance of made-up science probably was the time Superboy (young Clark specifically) and his lifelike robot dummies got diamond vision (d-vision as he called it) because a sudden tropical lightning storm struck some kryptonite he was using to teach his robots to pretend like they were weak to it and it charged them all with "super-electrical energy" that later was cured by being "short-circuited" with salt water. All as an excuse to tell a story where he was temporarily blind, because that was totally the simplest way to explain how that would happen.

 

[ATenderLad]

My personal favorite instance of made-up science probably was the time Superboy (young Clark specifically) and his lifelike robot dummies got diamond vision (d-vision as he called it) because a sudden tropical lightning storm struck some kryptonite he was using to teach his robots to pretend like they were weak to it and it charged them all with "super-electrical energy" that later was cured by being "short-circuited" with salt water. All as an excuse to tell a story where he was temporarily blind, because that was totally the simplest way to explain how that would happen.

It's uncanny, that's exactly how I was blinded once, checks out.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

I've actually really been wanting to overcome my comics stigma. I have various issues that make reading at length frustrating, and I've never been good at navigating panel layouts in western comics... but I have managed to start to break the barrier with persistence.

The most recent western comic I finished was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and before that Planet Hulk (plus a quick read of Back in Black.) Currently planning to read World War Hulk, as well as some Spider-Man stuff like the Gauntlet and Superior Spider-Man.

 

[ATenderLad]

I've actually really been wanting to overcome my comics stigma. I have various issues that make reading at length frustrating, and I've never been good at navigating panel layouts in western comics... but I have managed to start to break the barrier with persistence.

The most recent western comic I finished was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and before that Planet Hulk (plus a quick read of Back in Black.) Currently planning to read World War Hulk, as well as some Spider-Man stuff like the Gauntlet and Superior Spider-Man.

That's awesome, I used to take a sibling with me to get comics to help with them reading, they preferred manga but enjoyed spending my money sharing a hobby with me.

Planet Hulk is such a great jumping on point, just one of the best stories the character has and largely self-contained. World War Hulk is a short event that's wall-to-wall slobberknockers, with John Romita Jr. drawing action like it's the only way he's receive the antidote. If you're having fun with the character, a more recent book called The Immortal Hulk is maybe *the* best Hulk story ever written. It brings a sense of horror in the spirit of the original inspiration, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and really floored me.

Superior Spider-Man is a pretty wild time too, maybe the peak of Dan Slott's lengthy run on the character. The Gauntlet is a solid reintroduction of all of Spidey's well-known villains, just don't get too excited for The Grim Hunt it leads in to. It's a flat re-hash of Kraven's Last Hunt from the 80's, which - if you can find it - is a fantastic six-issue tale.

Actually, one more suggestion, but if you haven't read it? Watchmen. It's called the best for a reason, and it uses a very consistent panel layout throughout the series. Top to bottom, left to right, very uniform with the occasional splash page for effect.

It's cool that you're following through on that goal, feel free to mention any of it here if you're feeling like it.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

Watchmen

I have read Watchmen. Back when the movie was leading up to release I had a friend who was a HUGE fan of the graphic novel get excited/nervous and he got my into it. Loved it, but as taboo as it might be I also really liked the movie...

OH! Being from the 90's made it kind of mandatory I be a Spawn fan, so I've read a decent amount of that.

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

I was reading the crossover for Godzilla/Power Rangers and TMNT/Power Rangers but I have some interest in eventually reading some of the other newer Godzilla crossover comics like Godzilla vs Justice League vs Kong.

 

[ATenderLad]

I have read Watchmen. Back when the movie was leading up to release I had a friend who was a HUGE fan of the graphic novel get excited/nervous and he got my into it. Loved it, but as taboo as it might be I also really liked the movie...

OH! Being from the 90's made it kind of mandatory I be a Spawn fan, so I've read a decent amount of that.

Nah the movies okay, it just doesn't really....

...so I look at it the same way as like, an anime adaptation of a manga you like. Sure, they're moving around and talking now, but is it using the medium to actually change anything, or is it just the same thing presented differently? That's how I look at the Watchmen movie, it is *faithful*, but it can't capture a lot of what the comics do, and it doesn't embrace the things it could do differently with the medium of film. (I guess the action scenes, but plenty of other people have spilled ink about how they run counter to the tone of the book, so I won't re-hash it.)

Spawn was something I read back then too, my cousins collected every issue for the first couple years and shared them with me. Weirdly, in that case I think the movie is what put younger me off of the comics, it was one of the first things I remember seeing a theater and thinking "Oh, that wasn't good!"

I was reading the crossover for Godzilla/Power Rangers and TMNT/Power Rangers but I have some interest in eventually reading some of the other newer Godzilla crossover comics like Godzilla vs Justice League vs Kong.

Godzilla is getting *around* lately, I've mentioned a few times in this thread but there's a Godzilla Monsterpiece Theater book that's "What if Godzilla interrupted The Great Gatsby, and then a bunch of other books got looped in too?"

I did read a bit of that Godzilla/JL/Kong book, it's not bad! Very silly, obviously, but so is the movie franchise and I eat that mess up with a spoon and a smile.

 

[petermelnick]

Revisiting ‘70s Swamp Thing. Wrightson was the GOAT.

 

[Yousef]

My five favorite comic book characters:

1- John Constantine​

2- Deadpool​

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3- Question​

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4- Negan​

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5- Archie Andrews​

 

[ATenderLad]

Revisiting ‘70s Swamp Thing. Wrightson was the GOAT.

I mean, how many other people could make shambling plant mass look that cool?

My five favorite comic book characters:

1- John Constantine​

2- Deadpool​

3- Question​

4- Negan​

5- Archie Andrews​

That is a *wild* list, I love it. It swings from "What if Sting was a wizard?" to "Betty and Veronica's Beard."

 

[sneedcel]

"the amazing spider-man" (1963) and its tie in book "the spectacular spider-man"
pretty decent and holds up fairly well especially once you get past the dreadful art of the first few issues and the slice of life bits aren't bad either and are kept short and spread out evenly in between the action sequences

it does get extremely repetitive but i think that's most capeshit comic books, and of course ignoring all the wild crossover characters, their stories and redundant wording panels makes it better and it honestly beats watching any of the movies and probably some current comic runs