Batman: The Long Halloween Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (producer and artist of Heroes respectively) are a fantastic team on this one, though I'm not sure about their other work. Fables Awesome and compelling story about fabled story characters (Snow White, Cinderella, etc) living in New York City after they have been ousted from the Fable Lands by the Adversary. The best part of this series is Bigby Wolf, who is a cross between Wolverine and Dirty Harry. For a more girlish graphic novel, or for anyone who wants to see a main heroine with a rack the size of Texas, I recommend Madame Mirage. The story is pretty standard, but the art is insane. Kenneth Rocafort draws some of the best comic pages I've ever seen, and I wish he had a longer resume because I would buy all his stuff in a heartbeat. Mirage is also one of the only American graphic novels I've seen that feature somewhat interesting female leads, so I keep it around.
Mark Millar's Kick-Ass (the comic the upcoming movie is based on) is a pretty fun read. Nothing extremely deep and I'm definitely not qualified to comment on the artwork, but it does explore the question we've all had: "Wouldn't life be awesome as a superhero?" The answer is no.
I'm here to post a warning. Avoid the graphic novel "Wanted." Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it like it will pass you a VD just by looking at it. After seeing the Movie, I was recommended this series to read. To sum it up quickly, it is a violent 13 year old's idea of a violence orgasm with nothing else to accomplish. You purchase it, see roughly 100 pages, and think that this will be fun. The story had amazing potential, but that was the only thing going for it. After writing down the story synopsis on a napkin, the writer should have handed it off to someone with talent. The plot development was horrible, the character development was awful. The artwork was decent, but nothing spectacular or noteworthy. Then you reach the end of the book. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. You look and see half of the book left and wonder what's up. The rest is just filler pages, filled with pictures from the movie in comparison to pictures from this novel. I immediately considered returning the novel. But then I realized that I couldn't live with myself if the bookstore put it back on the shelf and someone else purchased it. I would burn it, but I've yet to find the holy exorcism ritual strong enough to purge it.
Really? I quite enjoyed it, especially after the abortion that was the film. I thought it was a really good idea that super-villains finally managed to work together in order to achieve world domination, and that it didn't hold back on showing you just how evil and fucked up these people are. Not knocking you dude, just saying.
I don't normally read Western comics, but I will as long as they're the basis for a film I might be interested in watching. (So I've read "300", "Watchmen", and "Hard-Boiled") Anyways, the Kick-Ass movie trailers looked completely retarded, but the comic itself isn't bad. Nothing outstanding, but like you wrote, a fun read. Still, I have a major problem with a comic that supposedly prides itself on realism being such a shoddy representation of it, especially the idea of a skinny high school nerd beating up 3 or more large Puerto Rican thugs, element of surprise or not. Three chapters in, and it's nothing more than a moderately entertaining read. How this got so adapted so quickly is beyond me. Probably going to lose a massive amount of money.
You know whats cool? Manga Shakespere. Seriously, Richard III is awesome as a manga. Can't tell you who their by, and I brought mine at the Globe Theatre in London in the gift shop there. But it was seriously cool to read.
I posted this in the Book Club thread, but anyone in LA want to lend out the rest of the Preacher series to me (the library doesn't carry it)? I picked up the first one and fucking loved it, and now because of you fuckers, I need to read the rest of the series. I'll trade you them for some books or something.
Finally got around to buying this and reading it, and I gotta say: it's pretty interesting. The art style is pretty unique, and the characters are archtypes but with significant twists. I'm going to have to look into getting the second series. Also, for those who are looking to save money go check out your local libraries. I didn't realize it by doing a basic search of their site, but my local library has a HUGE selection of trades and singles. I was pleasantly surprised.
Just started a comic called Scarlet by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev. There are only two issues out so far (I think), but it's pretty cool. The story, so far as I can tell, is about a girl who starts a modern-day revolution out of Portland, Oregon. It breaks the fourth wall so the main character is simultaneously narrating and interacting with the reader, which is an interesting change. I hadn't heard of Maleev before this, but the artwork is very good and definitely suits the darker tone of the story.
I haven't contributed to this topic much, since despite reading a ton of comics, they're all of the Japanese and Korean types. However, some of them are excellent, and deserve a mention; Domu- Awarded a prize for being the best Japanese science fiction story of 1983 despite being a comic, written by the author of "Akira". The story begins with a set of grisly murders inside an apartment complex, with a crazed, ominous voice telling the victims to kill themselves. As soon as the police investigation begins, we are introduced to the killer; a smiling, senile monster of an old man with telekinetic powers. However, pretty soon, an equally unlikely individual moves into the apartment and challenges his power, eventually turning the surrounding blocks into a corpse-strewn war zone. What follows is a fantastic story with excellent characters and some jaw-droppingly violent, lush panels. The comic does an amazing job weaving in its bloody, surreal central conflict among the matter-of-fact police investigation and common, hum drum daily scenes of living in an apartment. I'm probably not doing the work justice, but it's an absolute masterpiece, and very easy to download from the Internet.
For anyone into Nemesis the Warlock, Amazon.com is taking pre-orders for the Collected Book Volume 1. It's due for shipping on 13 November.
Words can hardly describe how good this story is. I love me some Watchmen, but let's be real, Moore is kind of a downer (not to mention, fucking weird). Vaughan on the other hand, made a story that started as science-fiction (all the men died), gave it a lot of drama but also made it really humorous. Instead of simple arche-types or people who symbolize stuff, his characters als real persons for which the reader really cares about. But the best thing about this is that you could practically recommend it to anyone. I think people with all kinds of preferences can relate and enjoy the subjects Vaughan writes about. I recommended it to one of my friends who only reads science-fiction, but also to my roommate who only watches tv and to my girlfriend, who's normally not into comics. And they all loved it.
I'm reading this too, and I'm not sure whether I'm going to like it or not. I like the art and the storytelling method, but the story itself seems to be pretty stereotypical anti-establishment ranting. Taking into account that Portland is a hipster/hippie haven, and I get the impression that the story is going to be a thinly veiled lecture about "the man." That could get annoying quickly. I'm definitely going to keep reading for a couple more issues to see where it goes. Good art and storytelling can make up for a little annoying preaching. Is anyone else reading "Chew" It's a detective comic where the investigators work for the F.D.A. and are... different. It's very funny, and well drawn. I highly recommend picking it up if you get the chance.
The last work these two did together was a fantastic, long run, on Daredevil. One of, if not the best I have ever read. I thought it was better than Frank Millars (of Sin City fame). Scarlet, so far is mediocre comic, but for these two, it's a piece of rubbish. Compared to Bendis's big other creator owned work, Powers, it is really lacking so far. If you want a very good comic taking place in Portland, try Stumptown by Greg Rucka. The first story arc just finished. He also wrote Queen and Country (my favorite comic ever written, about spies for British Government) and Whiteout.
I got the free first issue through the XComics app and it looks interesting. It's on my list of things to get when I get around to it.
I haven't read comics in many months, so I figured I would try out something Western for a change. However, I fucking hate superheroes, and most stuff I glanced at looked terrible. After a while, I noticed bunch of you have praised the talents of Garth Ennis, who wrote "Preacher", and found that he has a new series called "The Boys". The story is that superheroes are a bunch of vile, moral-less rapists, druggies, and assholes who murder hundreds of innocent civilians while doing their "job", protected by a PR machine and a massive company responsible for the drug that makes them powerful to begin with. That's where "The Boys" come in, a five man CIA-backed group that blackmails, tortures, and kills said superheroes. Perfect! Simple as the premise and plot lines are, the execution is marvelous; hilarious, exciting, action-packed, and well-written. According to the author, it's supposed to be more graphic and extreme than "Preacher" was; I don't really notice these things anymore, but I guess it's good in that regard, too. I've posted a cool cover in the spoilers; Spoiler
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/comic-con-neil-gaiman-to-write-new-sandman-series/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/comic-c ... an-series/</a> Sandman is one of the best all-time comics, and I'm pissing glitter I'm so excited for this.
I really enjoyed The Death and Life of Superman. The story of Superman dying and what happens to the world after. It helps to know a lot of Superman lore, but if you don't you can pick it up as you go.
<a class="postlink" href="http://bigother.com/2010/01/23/reading-frank-millers-batman-the-dark-knight-returns-part-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://bigother.com/2010/01/23/reading- ... ns-part-1/</a> A long treatise on The Dark Knight Returns. Hopefully the final part will include some analysis of TDKR movie. This was really interesting in terms of the Batman mythology, the history of comics as an art and an industry and also some cool insight into how Frank Miller wrote this book. Long, but worth the read.