Anyone currently reading comics?

[tryrushdeppy3]

Due to the Shooter news, today I will re-read some of my favorite Defiant and Broadway comics.

Here is an art by Fiffe I commissioned some years back of one of my favorite Defiant characters, Lorca from Warriors of Plasm - created by Jim Shooter and David Lapham.

 

[ATenderLad]

Guess this is how I'm finding out, RIP to Shooter.

I suppose his legacy, at least at the Big 2, will be a bit mixed. He oversaw the biggest boom Marvel ever had, but a lot of the initially profitable decisions he made can be pointed to as the downfall of the company in the following decade. (Preferring comic shops over other distribution and the hyper-focus on big merchandising events with Secret Wars, for example). He sounded like a very demanding boss according to the folks who worked with him, which was good for deadlines, but bad for retaining talent in the long run. He was a writer himself, not a corporate raider who jumped aboard. However, while he seemed to provide an environment where a guy like Chris Claremont could thrive, his own creative impulses could be a little profit-driven. The pretty horrific Avengers #200 seemed to have been written on the notion that "It's got a romance, a baby, AND a wedding! I smell a hit!"

(In fairness to Shooter, he also called the story a heinous disaster back in 2011, and accepts all criticism).

On the other hand, ya know, I did love the initial Valiant Comics as a kid; Magnus, Robot Fighter in particular. I've no idea how those hold up though, I haven't read them since...okay this is an odd association, but I remember reading them the same summer we were watching the O.J. Simpson trial on TV.

 

[Octopus]

Avengers #200

Oh Jesus, you just unlocked a memory on that one. I entirely forgot about that bizarre story until just now, somehow.

"It's got a romance, a baby, AND a wedding! I smell a hit!"

"And you'll never guess that it's all the same guy!"

I went down a weird rabbit hole last night of reading through digital scans of Black Belt magazine which was unintentional comedy and cringe gold, then somehow ended up on Savage Sword of Conan as one does, I guess. Read through the first five original issues or so, the story adaptations of the actual Howard written stories were fantastic of course; I particularly liked the Mistress of Death adaptation from the first issue, 'Curse of the Undead-Man'. The original story was unfinished by Howard himself (it was finished by another author), so they took a lot of liberties with it to say the least. Neither Red Sonja or Conan were in the original story, and they both replace the actual original main character of Dark Agnes de Chastillon who I only learned about a few weeks ago in a strange sort of coincidence. The Dark Agnes stories only got published in the 70's, 40 years after Howard's death, so makes sense why I'd never really heard much of them. Anyway, the story as an adaptation is pretty bad considering it's barely one, but that Buscema art? Hell yeah.

 

[Cuestionador]

Due to the Shooter news, today I will re-read some of my favorite Defiant and Broadway comics.

Here is an art by Fiffe I commissioned some years back of one of my favorite Defiant characters, Lorca from Warriors of Plasm - created by Jim Shooter and David Lapham.

View attachment 86026

Man, that rocks! David Lapham is a favourite of mine, i need to keep reading Stray Bullets.

Oh Jesus, you just unlocked a memory on that one. I entirely forgot about that bizarre story until just now, somehow.


"And you'll never guess that it's all the same guy!"

I went down a weird rabbit hole last night of reading through digital scans of Black Belt magazine which was unintentional comedy and cringe gold, then somehow ended up on Savage Sword of Conan as one does, I guess. Read through the first five original issues or so, the story adaptations of the actual Howard written stories were fantastic of course; I particularly liked the Mistress of Death adaptation from the first issue, 'Curse of the Undead-Man'. The original story was unfinished by Howard himself (it was finished by another author), so they took a lot of liberties with it to say the least. Neither Red Sonja or Conan were in the original story, and they both replace the actual original main character of Dark Agnes de Chastillon who I only learned about a few weeks ago in a strange sort of coincidence. The Dark Agnes stories only got published in the 70's, 40 years after Howard's death, so makes sense why I'd never really heard much of them. Anyway, the story as an adaptation is pretty bad considering it's barely one, but that Buscema art? Hell yeah.

View attachment 86459View attachment 86460

If you like Buscema's work, there's a Hulk story done for Marvel: Shadows and Light in full black and white, one of his last works and one of his best. Buscema in Conan (with or without Alcala's inks) is always a delight, but i have a soft spot for the old Kull the Conqueror title published by Marvel, drawn by John and Marie Severin and sometimes by Bernie Wrightson (who did the adaptation of The Skull of Silence, originally a Conan history). The Severin's are a hell of a team, and a very underrated one considering that both are an important part of comics history. As for Jim Shooter, i remember when Chris Claremont told him the idea for Marada the She-Wolf (originally planned as a Red Sonja graphic novel) and Shooter told him that the idea was too good for Sonja, encouraging him to use a creator-owned character for the project. The man was a complex one, full of lights and shadows, but personally i'm eternally gratefull for giving the keys of Daredevil to a young man from Vermont called Frank Miller.

I am surprised Vertigo does not get more love, though I reckon Dark Horse acquired some properties?

I love everything Vertigo publishes. I can barely stand kids comics anymore, Dark Horse is cool tho, much more real with regards of the Human Condition even when it comes to "Super Heroes".

Vertigo was huge in his time, but the last comebacks done in this century where nowhere near as good as the classic era of the imprint. Dark Horse has an imprint called Berger Books, directed by the ex-EIC of Vertigo Karen Berger, who publish new titles like The Seeds (by Ann Nocenti and David Aja) and republish cult classics like Enigma (a must-read by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo) and Air. More info here:

Search :: Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the third-largest comics publisher in the U.S., known for such titles as Aliens and Hellboy.

www.darkhorse.com

Back in the day, Vertigo published many miniseries (Strange Adventures, Weird War Tales, Flicnh) and one-shots like the Vertigo Visions or Vertigo Voices, there's great stuff in there (Doctor Occult: A Waltz of Scream, Prez: Smell like Teen President and The Geek: Corruption of the Innocent are my favourites), it's really a world to explore, full of great writers and artists.

Originally Vertigo was meant to be published by Disney in a imprint called Touchmark, but the project was cancelled and many of the comics planned where published by Vertigo (like The Extremist, another Milligan comic that i love).

 

[Bakuma1997]

An offer of 20 Pesos in a flea market i went a Sunday

 

[Coon]

I'm not reading anything at the moment but I'm sure that I'll read a comic again sometime in the near future. The last comic I read was Marvel Wolverine - Old Man Logan.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Should I read the Kickass comics? I haven't seen the movies in ages.

 

[Cuestionador]

Should I read the Kickass comics? I haven't seen the movies in ages.

The first miniseries is really fun, and one of the best Romita Jr's works made in this century. I don't know about the follow-ups, i only know that Pablo Raimondi (a fine artist of my country, who began as an assistant of Eduardo Risso) draws a Hit-Girl comic.

 

[Yousef]

Honestly? I trust magneto. He seems like a jolly ol fella.

 

[trickybus]

Honestly? I trust magneto. He seems like a jolly ol fella.

This is some Doctor Doom-level chicanery.

 

[diet_orange]

I'm for the most part selectively reading a bit of everything modern. Though to be honest, I've kind of lost interest in most of Marvel except for Moon Knight (even as a diehard Cap fan, I struggled with the last run). Absolute DC has been....interesting....still not sure what to make of Absolute Flash and Green Lantern (no interest in Batman or Superman at all). Adams' Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern (as well as his Flash Gordon for Mad Cave) have been both fun and refreshing interpretations. You can tell that he's passionate about the subject matter which seems totally rare these days

Not entirely sure what's going on with Valiant, which saddens me as somebody who's been following the line since 2012 and loved it. At least I finally got a full collection of Rai by Matt Kindt after it being impossibly expensive and out of print for years, so there's that...

 

[DanCalibur]

I just found out we got some Record of Lodoss War mangas released in Brazil fifteen years ago. I'm reading The Lady of Pharis now

 

[Cuestionador]

Reading this one a couple of days ago, still an underrated british classic, a reflection on war, humanity and the american culture, with remarkable artwork done by Mick McMahon, always a force of nature akin to Jack Kirby or Pablo Picasso (it's bizarre that this comic was made in the same decade of the Sonic and Decapattack comics for Fleetway), a shame that this comic was the end of the John Wagner/Alan Grant team. Now i know where Ennis "borrowed" the idea for his comic Just a Pilgrim.

 

[trickybus]

View attachment 90941
Reading this one a couple of days ago, still an underrated british classic, a reflection on war, humanity and the american culture, with remarkable artwork done by Mick McMahon, always a force of nature akin to Jack Kirby or Pablo Picasso (it's bizarre that this comic was made in the same decade of the Sonic and Decapattack comics for Fleetway), a shame that this comic was the end of the John Wagner/Alan Grant team. Now i know where Ennis "borrowed" the idea for his comic Just a Pilgrim.

That is really striking cover art! The caricatured profile, the use of markers for texture and the expelled casings running almost parallel to a divided sky stand out to me in particular. I could study this for an hour and find more details that interest and impress me.

 

[rugal]

these are the ones i read rightr now

 

[Crashbandi]

Re-reading through Transmet, one of my favorite comics/ graphic novels of all time
Needing to catch up on Saga, but don't remember where I left off.

 

[Yousef]

Updating my year old top 5 favorite comic book characters of all time, in no particular order.

1- Miles Morales​

It’s tough to go into everything I like about Miles, but he does one thing better than all comic book characters I’ve been exposed to my whole life and that miles still installs inspiration and hope, rivaled solely by Superman.

​

2 - Eddie Brock​

Embodies what I love about comics, the spirit of not giving a shit and just having fun.​

3- Deadpool​

Possesses the self awareness I seek in comics. Wade realizes that he’s just a guy in spandex and being some dude with weird powers doesn’t make special or above anyone, and just has fun with it

4- Archie Eggman​

​

Cheating a bit here, as this guy is functionally identical to his game counterpart with one tiny quirk, he is the ultimate evil. Unlike game Eggman who’s just a really petty guy, this guy is fullstop, pure evil. He’s not even a real person, he’s an AI. The original Robotnik backed up his own memory in case of death, and well, he did die! So an AI replica of his conscience got transferred to a backup body and it, or rather, he, became the primary antagonist. This isn’t Robotnik, but rather mimicking him, which feels like a meta commentary on sonic boomers demonizing the original JP name Eggman, despite Robotnik having no prior existence in Japan. Pretty clever, but this silly backstory helps illustrate his genuine lack of humanity. He’s not human, he’s a robot in flesh and bones, an ironic fate for one who spent his dying breath roboticizing everyone he knew.

5- Spawn​

​

I mean, look at him

 

[fake-kun]

Cheating a bit here, as this guy is functionally identical to his game counterpart with one tiny quirk, he is the ultimate evil. Unlike game Eggman who’s just a really petty guy, this guy is fullstop, pure evil. He’s not even a real person, he’s an AI. The original Robotnik backed up his own memory in case of death, and well, he did die! So an AI replica of his conscience got transferred to a backup body and it, or rather, he, became the primary antagonist. This isn’t Robotnik, but rather mimicking him, which feels like a meta commentary on sonic boomers demonizing the original JP name Eggman, despite Robotnik having no prior existence in Japan. Pretty clever, but this silly backstory helps illustrate his genuine lack of humanity. He’s human, he’s a robot in flesh and bones, an ironic fate for one who spent his dying breath roboticizing everyone he knew.

Damn, Archie Sonic is wild.

 

[diet_orange]

On the other hand, ya know, I did love the initial Valiant Comics as a kid; Magnus, Robot Fighter in particular. I've no idea how those hold up though, I haven't read them since...okay this is an odd association, but I remember reading them the same summer we were watching the O.J. Simpson trial on TV.

Most of Valiant still reads well, even after Shooter left. My favorites were always Bloodshot and Shadowman

Also, my tpb collection

 

[Cuestionador]

Reading the first eight issues of this new title, is a breath of fresh air and a comeback to the eras of Starlin and Alan Grant, i highly suggest to check this book, Watters and Sherman are a hell of a duo.

 

[Segadude113]

This looks great, but i still don't like muscular She-Hulk. Everyone else is on point though.

 

[Sleepstate]

recently been reading the IDW MLP comics on and off though thinkin about tryna get into X-Men though

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Recently been reading L'Arabe du futur 1 (The Arab of the Future) by Riad Sattouf and El Diablo by Alexis Nesme and Lewis Trondheim! I'm not sure the count as comics?

 

[diet_orange]

recently been reading the IDW MLP comics on and off though thinkin about tryna get into X-Men though

X-Men is legit daunting because there's so damn much of it. Personally I've always enjoyed Claremont's Excalibur, David's X-Factor and Lobdell's Generation X

Harbinger by Valiant (original 90's and 2012 reboot) is also a pretty good facsimile, same with Comico's Elementals

 

[Octopus]

recently been reading the IDW MLP comics on and off though thinkin about tryna get into X-Men though

Like @diet_orange said, you definitely have more than a few eras to choose from. To what he said, I'd add Astonishing X-Men starting from the Joss Whedon era in 2004, though the first two previous limited series under the same name were great too. It's some great storytelling, and I think is also a good starting point for someone looking to get into that era of X-Men books due it not really ever worrying about continuity or crossover events and the like.