comics

petergunn

plywood violin
Born Again is great but my favourite Miller book might be Ronin. All the Batman stuff he did after Year One and The Dark Knight Returns is unreadable shite, iMHbCO.

Jim Starlin's run on Batman in the late 80s was pretty good. A Death in the Family was a bit contrived but the stuff leading up to it was fantastic. He always seemed like a bit of a reactionary, though.

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Really want to read as much of the Claremont(/Byrne) Uncanny X-Men as I can. My Marvel knowledge is quite pitiful. Byrne did a really nice Batman mini-series, BTW. I think it was called The Many Deaths of the Batman.

i reread the Dark Knight Strikes Back and really enjoyed it... maybe b/c I was never blown away by the OG series, but I thought it was a worthy sequel...

i have been buying old comics whenever i see 'em for 50 cents or a buck and have amassed a pretty good chunk of Starlin's Batman stuff, and it is good... it does speak well of Starlin's writing abilities that he can write cosmic stuff and gritty Batman stories... it IS funny how political his run is, with the big KGBeast story and Iranian diplomat stuff...

the Claremont/Byrne X-Men stuff is just so fun... you can pick up issues of Classic X-Men for cheap these days or just buy a collection... Days of Future Passed and the Dark Phoenix stuff gets all the attention, but there are very few bad issues from their collaboration...

Byrne did a couple little runs on Batman... Many Deaths of... is cool, and I recall liking Untold Legends of the Batman... typical origin thing, but the art is nice...
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
didja like it? is it in color? the art in that is some of the best of the trippy 70's superhero stuff and it would be a shame not to see the full color...

if you dug it, I would say check out Starlin's Life and Death of Captain Marvel, too... as well as the Infinity Gauntlet...

after those 3 books, you will be all Thanos'd out and I suppose ready for the next Avengers movie...

unfortunately stock has been delayed, but it should arrive next week! perhaps they underestimated the demand, as the price kept switching all week.

thanks for these other Starlin tips, will check'em out for sure. should i really bother with the movie adaptations? i tend to ignore the films.

finished Venom and in the middle of Watchmen. loving every second so far. i really love Alan Moore. what Moore to read next? From Hell seems to be highly regarded!
either that or LOEG i guess?!?
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
finished Venom and in the middle of Watchmen. loving every second so far. i really love Alan Moore. what Moore to read next? From Hell seems to be highly regarded!
either that or LOEG i guess?!?

From Hell is good. I think you'd really dig Promethea and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I also particularly like Swamp Thing and Halo Jones.

Top Ten and it's spin-offs are pretty good too.
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
From Hell is good. I think you'd really dig Promethea and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I also particularly like Swamp Thing and Halo Jones.

Top Ten and it's spin-offs are pretty good too.

thanks. when i have some more pocket money i will spill some coins on the counter.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
I meant to put "its spin-offs" - no apostrophe. Sorry.

Try to get the first book of all those things.

Oh and how could I forget The Killing Joke? Small but perfectly formed.
 

petergunn

plywood violin
unfortunately stock has been delayed, but it should arrive next week! perhaps they underestimated the demand, as the price kept switching all week.

thanks for these other Starlin tips, will check'em out for sure. should i really bother with the movie adaptations? i tend to ignore the films.

finished Venom and in the middle of Watchmen. loving every second so far. i really love Alan Moore. what Moore to read next? From Hell seems to be highly regarded!
either that or LOEG i guess?!?

they're not movie adaptations... thanos is supposed to the villain in the next avengers movie, but that is def not why i would recommend them...

like CT said, you should def check out Killing Joke...
 
D

droid

Guest
Well, apart from the above mentioned, definitely marvelman/miracelman - there's a link in this thread somewhere to CBR's. Collectedfuture shocks, Brought to Light, Swamp thing. Wouldnt bother with Wildcats/Tom strong/Top 10 TBH.

Oh, and voices from the fire is excellent as well, though not a comic.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
Well, apart from the above mentioned, definitely marvelman/miracelman - there's a link in this thread somewhere to CBR's. Collectedfuture shocks, Brought to Light, Swamp thing. Wouldnt bother with Wildcats/Tom strong/Top 10 TBH.
Oh, and voices from the fire is excellent as well, though not a comic.

Tom Strong is rubbish but Top 10 is great. Even better are the spin-offs: Smax (probably the funniest thing Moore has ever written - and he can hilarious when he puts his mind to it) and The 49ers (a brilliantly concise one-shot graphic novel).

And don't sleep on Promethea. Not only is it the funnest manifestation of his interest in "magick", it's also - in many ways - even more technically ambitious that Watchmen!

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droid

Guest
Tom Strong is rubbish but Top 10 is great. Even better are the spin-offs: Smax (probably the funniest thing Moore has ever written - and he can hilarious when he puts his mind to it) and The 49ers (a brilliantly concise one-shot graphic novel).

And don't sleep on Promethea. Not only is it the funnest manifestation of his interest in "magick", it's also - in many ways - even more technically ambitious that Watchmen!

Promethea15.jpg

Promethea is good alright, but a tad too Gaimanish (though considering Gaiman himself is a parody of Moore, then maybe its a tad too pseudo Moore).

Top 10 was OK, I just found it disappointing to see him jumping through the same hoops that he'd already burnt to cinders over a decade earlier.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
Promethea is good alright, but a tad too Gaimanish (though considering Gaiman himself is a parody of Moore, then maybe its a tad too pseudo Moore).
Top 10 was OK, I just found it disappointing to see him jumping through the same hoops that he'd already burnt to cinders over a decade earlier.

To me, Promethea is so entertaining and intelligent plus such a virtuoso display of comics writing, that it transcends its potentially-shticky "magickal" subject matter. Not that I have anything against Neil Gaiman, Scientology aside.

You want a parody of Alan Moore? Try Grant Morrison. Having said that, some of his stuff is actually great, especially All-Star Superman.

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droid

Guest
Yes, you're right of course. Morrison is much more Moore-lite. Zenith = Marvelman for example.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
I liked Zenith. The first series, at least.

A lot of Morrison's stuff is shit, though. Adolescent nonsense masquerading as "adult content" (which could be Vertigo's tagline, come to think of it!)
 
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droid

Guest
I loved Zenith. One of his best works. I only realised later how much of a rip-off it was.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
It is! But don't forget to praise Eddie Campbells art! I find what he does really touching and convincing. And his writing is often hilarious, I love all the Alec stuff.

I don't know anything of Eddie Campbell's work outside From Hell - would love to find out.

The interesting thing about From Hell is how simple the and single-layered the layouts
are. Presumably, after Watchmen and Big Numbers (whatever happened to that?) Moore was burned out on stylistically ambitious stuff.

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My comics tip for today is Gerry Conway's run on Batman and Detective. He wrote both titles in the early 80s and turned the whole thing into a hugely entertaining bi-weekly soap opera based around municipal politics, organized crime and various femme fatales. Great art during his era too.

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