def Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Now, the writing of FMA was genius. The Manga-Ka did the sort of research someone writing a serious novel would do, its a sort of steampunk-ish early 20th century world with a complex history. One thing that this writer did was plot out and actually plan the entire story. No "sure why not" things to extend it beyond it's natural life (like Naruto and Bleach and such do). If you are ever in need of a read, Full Metal Alchemist is worth it. As for Wildcat, he's a cool character who soon possibly won't exist... I'll have to give FMA a chance then. I usually only check out pop manga when the critical consensus hits a certain point. As for Wildcat, I wouldn't worry about him. The DC rebooting is most likely a marketing scheme more than anything else. Anything popular will keep existing, and anything a DC writer likes will be brought back Exactly! (Although CAD is still terrible) I have to side with Peppermint on this one. To say manga is terrible is about equal to saying movies or TV is terrible. You've just had poor experience with it. Manga isn't a genre, it's the comics of a country. It's a shame that the West has pigeon-holed it as a genre. Quote
Professor Flitwick Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 My main comic experience is with the Batman franchise. My personal favourite is 'The Mad Monk'; The Monk is a rather gruesome and unknown antagonist. If anyone is toying with dipping into the Bat-verse, I also recommend the 'Batman: Cataclysm' and 'Batman: No Man's Land' arcs. My experience with Manga reaches only to first several issues of Pokemon Adventures. I only own a few (the original Red vs. Blue vs. Green, to be precise) but I found them enjoyable, if a bit too rare. As much as I want to get into the Marvel/DC comics, I doubt I have the time to read all of them from the beginning Well, good news for you! They're rebooting all of the DC comics (likely why Lego have stuck with the DC comics approach to their new license), revamping old faces, boosting ones of lesser renown, and creating entirely new ones! Quote
Peppermint_M Posted July 29, 2011 Author Posted July 29, 2011 Exactly! (Although CAD is still terrible) I'd completely forgotten about Buttersafe, so thanks for reminding me. Add Watchmen, Toothpaste for dinner, GarfieldminusGarfield and The Perry Bible Fellowship to my list above. Oh, yes, the spelling mistakes. Invalidates the point entirely. As def said, manga is a form of media, not a genre. Manga covers many more genres than most western comics, not to mention the thousands of niche titles that are published in the hundreds of phone book sized collections each week/month. One bad experience doesn't mean all of them are bad. Oh, I need to add Crest of The Stars to my manga list. Zatanna issues to the comic list and all three of the extra Sandman books outside of the orignal run to the TPB list. Quote
Calanon Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 I read a few webcomics, mainly Scandinavia and the World and another one called Questionable Content. Quote
simonjedi Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 (edited) Oh, yes, the spelling mistakes. Invalidates the point entirely. I don't know what's that got to do with anything As def said, manga is a form of media, not a genre. Manga covers many more genres than most western comics, not to mention the thousands of niche titles that are published in the hundreds of phone book sized collections each week/month. One bad experience doesn't mean all of them are bad. Alright then. I still don't like it. (My last post on the subject.) E: Found 2 more webcomics hidden in my Firefox favourites: 3 Word Phrase Hiimdaisy Edited July 29, 2011 by simonjedi Quote
foolio93 Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 I'll read whatever looks interesting. I read DBZ, DB, The Walking Dead, Fables, One Piece, Yuyu Hakusho, Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate X-men, and Marvel zombies. I recently got into Astonishing X-men and Buffy the vampire slayer season 8. I've yet to start buffy because i'm still watching the show, but I'm excited to start it! I also look forward to Angel and Faith, Buffy Season nine, and Ultimate Comics X-men. Quote
art_apples Posted August 6, 2011 Posted August 6, 2011 I grew up very much a 2000AD fan (possibly only UK readers will get the reference) with of course Judge Dredd, the stupendously awesome and truly funny Alan Moore's Dr & Quinch, and of course his seminal The Ballad of Halo Jones, the ground breaking art of Carlos Ezquerra amongst many mnay others, Simon Bisly's art in Slaine... so many really, and that's what I always loved about growing up with 2000AD and that was that it always pionered new artists and writers, it always set out to break the mold and explore the comic medium and as a result it has created such a rich legacy of amazing stories and truly outstanding artists. Recently I have been reading the superb Joe Sacco graphic novels (Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza, Safe Area Gorazde) ... whilst someone might be dismisive of it regarding it's political content I can only say you must try it out.. like great graphic novels it has a force way beyond it's drawing style and it slowly but surely gets a grip on your conscience that will leave a lasting impression for a long time afterwards. He is a true powerhouse of the graphic novel medium and for all the books that I have read regarding his subject matter, surprisingly Sacco's work leaves a far stronger impact... Joe Sacco's 'Footnotes in Gaza' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAdHOS3lkQ Quote
minifig3 Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 Calvin & Hobbes just cant be beat. and Kdogs space comic. Quote
def Posted August 12, 2011 Posted August 12, 2011 Recently I have been reading the superb Joe Sacco graphic novels (Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza, Safe Area Gorazde) ... whilst someone might be dismisive of it regarding it's political content I can only say you must try it out.. like great graphic novels it has a force way beyond it's drawing style and it slowly but surely gets a grip on your conscience that will leave a lasting impression for a long time afterwards. He is a true powerhouse of the graphic novel medium and for all the books that I have read regarding his subject matter, surprisingly Sacco's work leaves a far stronger impact... I really enjoyed Sacco's work, but I haven't read it in ten years. It's quite heavy, and I don't know how soon I want to revisit it. After reading it, I felt very politicized, especially Palestine. It's hard not to sympathize with their plight after reading that. Last week, I reread Hicksville, which is one of my favorite graphic novels. It is about the most comic loving town in the world, tucked away in rural New Zealand. As someone who loves comics, this book is like catnip. Not loving superheroes or manga or anything, but comics as an artform in general. A lovely, lovely book. Quote
art_apples Posted August 13, 2011 Posted August 13, 2011 (edited) I really enjoyed Sacco's work, but I haven't read it in ten years. It's quite heavy, and I don't know how soon I want to revisit it. After reading it, I felt very politicized, especially Palestine. It's hard not to sympathize with their plight after reading that. Konnichiwa def... Yea I agree that Sacco's work leaves you politicized; for me that is part of the appeal... I like to get a reaction from something like a graphic novel. It reminds me of the adult cartoon film (and graphic novel which I haven't read) 'Waltz With Bashir' which comes highly recommended if you haven't come across it, but basically it leaves such a strong impression that would probably stay with you for years. Like you I haven't read Palestine for many years and am only recently re-reading old favourites. I'm going through a political comic revival at the moment, and I've been re-reading 'Maus' and the rather interesting Guy Delisle graphic novels (Burma Chronicles, and his Chinese and N.Korean stories Shenzhen & Pyongyang) so Sacco was definetly a part of that. Actually I wanted to ask you about a comic you mentioned a while back on this thread... I've always been interested in reading Japanese comics/graphic novels and was wondering if you had any suggestions as I have little knowledge of the whole area, but was perhaps looking for more graphic novels rather tah anime or manga comics. I've been going through a Japanese immersion for many years, mainly films (from Ozu and Kurosawa to Studio Ghibli, Kitano, Takashi Miike and many many others) and was wondering if this Yoshihiro Tatsumi comic was in the spirit of Studio Ghibli's films (if you are familiar with them)... not so much in their imagnation which quite frankly is very unique, but more in terms of 'feel' and 'mood' or in the 'pacing'... I am very much interested in finding some modern Japanese grahic novels that maybe show an insight to modern Japan, even if it was just in the detail. So if you think 'A Drifting Life' has that, or if you have any other recommendations then I would be really grateful if you gave me any suggestions. I also read a lot of (mainly modern) Japanese books (from Haruki Murakami through to Natsuo Kirino and Ryu Murakami and Yasutaku Tsutsui) but again so many others really, and in particular I am interested in the modern viewpoint of Japan in these books and the look into the Japanese 'psyche', so if you had any graphic novel recommendations which captured that or conveyed similar ideas I would love to know. Edited August 13, 2011 by art_apples Quote
brickmack Posted August 13, 2011 Posted August 13, 2011 Various Star Wars/old Star Trek ones, Doctor Who, XKCD, Ctrl-Alt-Del, Penny Arcade, LEGO Space, Tranquility Base, Legostar Galactica Quote
def Posted August 13, 2011 Posted August 13, 2011 Konnichiwa def... <snip> I reread Maus last year, and it's as good as ever. Just a stunning work, especially when it gets meta in the second half. I like Deslile's work too, but I've only read Pyongyang. His art is really like and European, reminds me of Trondheim somewhat. As for Japanese work, first off, I'm not Japanese, I've just lived here for a long time Tatsumi is an excellent artist, but he came of age in the 1950's, with a lot of film influence. At that time, comics were slightly juvenile or stuck in genre, and he pushed the boundaries a lot. Drawn & Quarterly have been republishing his 1960's work for the last few years. The stuff it reminds me most of is Akira Kuraswa's Ikiru. There's a lot of quiet drama about living in Tokyo at the time; the anonymity of being in one of the biggest cities in the world, the shift from a traditional society to a business one, and just feeling lost and useless. And there are a lot of scenes of people using their power over one another, usually emotional power. I haven't seen Ozu's work, but from what I know he was into human stories too. The autobiography Tatsumi is a lot lighter in tone than his young work, but I guess that's a result of coming to terms with his life. Artists like Art Spigleman and Adrian Tomine were big fans of him, so that's why I started checking out his stuff. I can read Japanese, but it can give me a headache after a while, so I don't check out the comics here that much. Too much Dragonball/One Piece/etc all over the place. One artist I really like though is Natsume Ono. She does really thoughtful work, and has that style that grounds manga (solid perspective, backgrounds) but her line work is a lot more expressive. She's great. The comic shops here are labyrinthine, so they're hard to navigate. Occasionally I'll go to a hipster store which will have a little comic rack of undergrounds and skim something there. Unfortunately, Japanese publishing is in the same position as American publishing. The vast majority of work is escapist fantasy. Which is fun, but I can't eat ice cream all the time every day, and I can't read escapist work all the time either. For a general work about society here, the kacho (manager) series will tell you about life here, and there is a bilingual version, I suppose to help Japanese learn English. link It's about a successful manager who slowly moves up in his company. It can teach you about Japanese business culture, behaviour, that sort of thing, but... I hated this book. The lead character is honorable, always does the right thing, and is totally boring IMHO. He is an idealized successful Japanese man. There are loads in the series though, and it's not a hard investment for one volume. Quote
XimenaPaulina Posted August 14, 2011 Posted August 14, 2011 I'm not much of a comic reader, but my love for basketball has made me read the manga Slam Dunk after the anime series of the same name, which I truly loved watching up to its last episode, was abruptly ended due to the creator's untimely demise. I really enjoyed reading that one, good thing there's an English translation online. Quote
art_apples Posted August 16, 2011 Posted August 16, 2011 I reread Maus last year... <snip> Arigatou gozaimasu (Thankyou) for your great tips def , I'm exploring your suggestions of Ono and Hirokane and found them very useful starting points when searching in Amazon as they both have opened up so many avenues. I've taken the plunge in your suggestion of Tatsumi's A Drifting Life and I've already ordered that so hopefully should get that in a day or two. The comparison to Kurosawa was enougth of a persuader for me If you are a fan of Kurosawa's Ikiru and also haven't seen any Ozu; I would strongly recommend Yasujiro Ozu's 'Tokyo Story', it shares similarities to Kurosawa's Ikiru in the way it masterfully observes and explores facets of life through subtle details and emotions. I will leave with what is possibly my highest recommendation for any comic or graphic novel that I have ever come across... The mind boggingly stupendesly hillarious Alan Moore's 'D.R. & Quinch'. ... in fact it's so good and I am so confident that it would instantly become one of your favourite's, that if you bought it and you don't laugh your head of continuosly and fall in love with it, just pm me and I will pay you the cost of whatever you paid for it via PayPal... (actually don't haha, but you get what I mean...) Thanks again Quote
Fred Daniel Yam Posted August 29, 2011 Posted August 29, 2011 Graphic Novels/Comics Green Lantern: Blackest Night Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Tintin Asterix and Obelisk Calvin and Hobbes Garfield Transformers: For All Mankind Manga Captain Tsubasa Kindaichi Case Files (Creepy Stuff) One Piece I read a lot more stuff like Maus and Poirot, but they are more political and based off existing novels so yeah. Thats about it Have a nice day everybody! Quote
Ceroknight Posted August 29, 2011 Posted August 29, 2011 Hi, so I want to start reading some DC/Marvel... And I decided to start with Green Lantern. I'm interested in reading the Darkest Night/Brightest Day part and I was wondering which books I need to pick up for them.. I know there are DN volume 1-3 but I don't know about BD..suggestions? Quote
Peppermint_M Posted August 30, 2011 Author Posted August 30, 2011 Hi, so I want to start reading some DC/Marvel... And I decided to start with Green Lantern. I'm interested in reading the Darkest Night/Brightest Day part and I was wondering which books I need to pick up for them.. I know there are DN volume 1-3 but I don't know about BD..suggestions? Wait for the trades or go look for a complete list of essentials that are out there on the 'net somewhere. Truth be told I haven't bought anything to do with that for ages due to the reboot this month. Heh, from this week there will be brand new issue 1 for each and every so it's a great time to start but a terrible time if you liked the old way. As of the new DCU I will be getting Black Hawks and soon the brand new Earth 2 JSA. Quote
greeny Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 Nerd3: http://nerdcubed.co.uk/2010/09/23/one/ It's a day in the life webcomic about a famous game... called Minecraft Quote
pp7 Posted November 19, 2011 Posted November 19, 2011 Coming late to this, want to address so many things...! If you're tired of the big DC/Marvel comics, then read some of the smaller titles or the non-canonical sides. I don't think anyone has mentioned Neil Gaiman's 'Marvel 1602' which was simply brilliant. Most libraries will have the TPB. DC fans have Vertigo to look to, as well. If you're new to Manga: don't expect it to be like American comics. I've seen the most wonderful and bizzare things happen in Manga that could never happen in any other medium. Same could be said about anime, I suppose. Try reading 20th Century Boys - if it doesn't blow your mind, I'll punch myself in the face. Also, and this is a travesty, but how has no one mentioned IMAGE COMICS? Image, which is best known now for Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, is far and away the best alt comic printer. Best titles: -Invincible (my favourite superhero story ever... ever!) -Walking Dead -Spawn (SPAWN! did no one mention Spawn!?) -Elephantmen -Savage Dragon -The Astounding Wolfman -Haunt (Todd Macfarlane and Robert Kirkman) -Girls If you like comics, you owe it to yourself!! I mentioned recently in another post that most of the Lego licences regarding the comic heroes really have nothing to do with the comics and everything to do with our familiarity with the characters from TV and movies. I was so glad to see a topic regarding actual comics and very interested to see what the Lego community, in general, enjoys reading. Thanks! Quote
iamded Posted November 19, 2011 Posted November 19, 2011 Props to pp7 for reviving this, as it seems I totally missed it! I love comics. I've been a huge fan of Deadpool for years. That's the main comic I read that's not digital. Hmm, actually I think all the rest are web-comics. Am I still welcome here? My favourite web-comics would have to be Three Panel Soul (count it's predecessor Mac Hall with that too), Awkward Zombie, Johnny Wander and The Meek. They're all well-drawn, and fun to read. Definitely my favourites. Other web-comics that I enjoy reading include but are not limited to (in no order but that in which I find them in my bookmarks); The Punchline is Machismo aka Manly Guys Doing Manly Things (this should maybe be with the other four), Doctor McNinja, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, xkcd, Cyanide & Happiness, Three Word Phrase, Questionable Content, 'Rock, Paper, Cynic', The Perry Bible Fellowship, Super Effective, Darths & Droids, Nerf This, 'Hark, A Vagrant', Basic Instructions, Bug Comic, Buni... I know it's generally frowned upon, but I still follow Ctrl+Alt+Del, if only because I've been doing so for so long and I don't want to stop just because it's gotten bad. I'm also aware of 2D Goggles, but if I were to start at the beginning I'd need to catch up, and that would take a long time. It's there in my bookmarks though, for when I decide it's time to read it. And then there's another called The Makeshift Miracle which I stopped reading out of lack of interest, but I may get back to it. Did I mention Scott Pilgrim? I love Scott Pilgrim. I love everything about it. It's a great series and I never get sick of it. Ah, it's awesome. Quote
pp7 Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Did I mention Scott Pilgrim? I love Scott Pilgrim. I love everything about it. It's a great series and I never get sick of it. Ah, it's awesome. Being a Toronto native, I loved Scott Pilgrim! In fact, my ex-bandmate's ex-bandmate's brother is the author! No joke! This is pretttty much the only webcomic I really follow, also a Toronto thing kinda. Kinda bizarre, lots of words, http://www.viruscomix.com/subnormality.html Quote
def Posted December 23, 2011 Posted December 23, 2011 I bought some comics this month, and they are making me happy I got the first volume of the new Carl Barks Donald Duck comics. It was beautiful. I'm not crazy about the stories, but the pacing and the art is so remarkable. I'm really jealous. And I read right through that. I'm reading Craig Thomson's Blankets, a book I'd heard about before, and finally picked up. His first book was a cutesy animal book, and it kept me from picking this up when it was new. I really wish I had got it years ago. It's fantastic. An auto-biographical story of a guys first romance. Phenomenally drawn, using a full vocabulary of story telling techniques. I can't recommend it enough. I'll be picking up his new book, Habibi, soon after. And I bought some manga, some Naoki Urasawa work, Monster and Master Keaton. Plowing through it in Japanese will be my Christmas holiday homework. And of course, drawing some myself Quote
iamded Posted December 23, 2011 Posted December 23, 2011 Being a Toronto native, I loved Scott Pilgrim! In fact, my ex-bandmate's ex-bandmate's brother is the author! No joke! That, is awesome. I'll be moving to a place with a comic book store for Uni next year, so I look forward to getting much more into comics then. I've already spotted Lost At Sea, Bryan Lee O'Malley's book he made before Scott Pilgrim, which I very much would like to get my hands on. I'd also like to get into The Walking Dead, having recently watched all the episodes. It's always nice to read the source material when it comes to television and movie adaptations of books. A friend recently bought the Valve collection of comics. I'm not sure what to think about this. All the comics are available free to read online on various Valve websites. I suppose it's good of Valve to offer a nice collection of them in book form, for those who would like that. The comics are very nice, with ones from Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I wouldn't mind having a copy... But Valve are constantly releasing comics, I doubt they'll all make their way into books. Who knows, maybe there'll be a Volume 2 with all the rest. Anyway, that's enough from me for now. I'm reading Craig Thomson's Blankets, a book I'd heard about before, and finally picked up. That actually looks really awesome. I'll be sure to ask comic book shop guy about them. Quote
pp7 Posted December 30, 2011 Posted December 30, 2011 That, is awesome. I'll be moving to a place with a comic book store for Uni next year, so I look forward to getting much more into comics then. I've already spotted Lost At Sea, Bryan Lee O'Malley's book he made before Scott Pilgrim, which I very much would like to get my hands on. I'd also like to get into The Walking Dead, having recently watched all the episodes. It's always nice to read the source material when it comes to television and movie adaptations of books. Walking Dead will not dissapoint! I read up until about issue 55ish, and then, to be honest, I got too overwhelmed with the depressing plot to keep going! It is really awesome though, and my friends who keep up with it are still loving it. I read Lost At Sea when I was in highschool. It is pretty deep, not the fast-paced funny book that Scott Pilgrim is. The title is a reference to a line from a Smashing Pumpkins song called Stumbeline - there's my nerdy fact-o-the-day. I hope you enjoy it! Really great. Some book stores in Canada carry it regularly, I'm not sure if B&N will have it in the States. Quote
iamded Posted December 31, 2011 Posted December 31, 2011 Walking Dead will not dissapoint! I read up until about issue 55ish, and then, to be honest, I got too overwhelmed with the depressing plot to keep going! It is really awesome though, and my friends who keep up with it are still loving it. I read Lost At Sea when I was in highschool. It is pretty deep, not the fast-paced funny book that Scott Pilgrim is. The title is a reference to a line from a Smashing Pumpkins song called Stumbeline - there's my nerdy fact-o-the-day. I hope you enjoy it! Really great. Some book stores in Canada carry it regularly, I'm not sure if B&N will have it in the States. Yes, I fully expect The Walking Dead to be great. I don't want to overpass the TV series though, so it'll take me a good long time to read all of it. I made the same mistake with A Game of Thrones. I know I should really have read the books first, but I started with the series and that's what I know now, and I don't want the books to spoil anything for me. So both The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones books will have to wait until their respective TV series get canned. I figured Lost at Sea would be very different from the Pilgrim books, but I'm all for anything by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I like his style. I don't know what B&N is either, but I'm in New Zealand so that's no problem. MK1, the comic book store that I go to, has it in stock. So that's good. Quote
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