comics

[droid]

no on both counts, i think the online bombardment of manga style imagery has queered me a little on japanese comics, or at least they aren't the first thing that tends to catch my eye, comics are so expensive and i'm always skint... that artwork looks familiar but i think it's just cos it looks a bit like Keiji Nakazawa.

He's got two books out 'Goodbye' and 'abandon the old in tokyo'. Both quite dark and highly recommended. His style reminds me a bit of Kazuichi Hanawa:

that's certainly a factor, but it's the outright nihilism of it that seals the deal. by the end of the second chapter he's executed his old man and his bird which is pretty fair going. He's about as anti a hero as you'll find in comics- well he's the bad guy in lwac of course. i suppose it is just higher on the exploitation style content and lower on the near soap opera level of extended narrative lwac has. it's just so fucking long!

Heh. Yeah, its pretty bleak alright. Well worthy of a re-read now you mention it. LWAC is a bit long and flags a bit in the middle, but I guess that's the manga way and you get quite used to it after a few 20+ volume series'.

samurai executioner felt like a kind of ne plus ultra for this genre, i must admit i've not paid it much further attention since i read it. i'm in awe of these dudes inking though, always a pleasure to look at!

Its nowhere near as good as SE, but its old skool and pretty interesting by virtue of that alone - plus its only 3 volumes.

RE price - The thing about manga is that its so much better value for money than your average western comic. You normally get well over 100 pages for about 8-10 euro in comparison to paying 4.99 for a 40 page comic thats half full of ads.

And just to contradict that - you should check out ponet mons' stuff. Mostly Jiro Taniguichi and 'noveau manga' (French manga basically). They put out some great stuff in 'deluxe' format.

http://www.ponentmon.com/new_pages/english/princ.html

 

[zhao]

old news but some of the coolest art i have seen in a mainstream title in for ever:

by this dude: http://pulphope.blogspot.com/

 

[droid]

Paul Popes' Batman. Hes the 'Jim Morrison of comics apparently. Started his career with manga publisher Kodanasha.

Good article here:

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/028_pope/028_pope.htm

He reminds me a bit of UK independent stuff form the late 80s/early 90s. 'Heavy Liquid' and 'THB' are great.

 

[D84]

This is interesting. Ellis describes this as a 'totally British thing', although the art style is very similar to manga - specifically Shou Tajimas work in MPD psycho - and the theme? A bunch of mysteriously genetically engineered psychic kids struggling with the responsibility of their powers??

You couldn't get more manga if you were cosplaying in Akihabara!!

I never thought about that! It's Akira set in Neo-London...

Have you guys seen this site? I found a couple of Fletcher Hanks episodes there: Fantomah and Stardust. Nutty stuff! I've got to get that anthology now...

I also found a Space Smith episode archived here.

I hadn't heard of Paul Popes before. Nice.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

Never been convinced by the whole webcomics thing but Dash Shaw's Bodyworld is certainly worth a look. Engages with the medium (such as it is) well.

Start here:

http://www.dashshaw.com/prelude.html

 

[droid]

Looks really good.

I'm currently reading old 2000ADs on my DS.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

bumpshbump

surprising how little heat this thread generates given we are in an unprecedented period of activity, popularity and possibly invention within the medium


maybe comix are still fatally tarred w. the nerd brush....

in case anyone who might care missed it...Dan Clowes otherwise unpublished Mr. Wonderful for the New Yorker:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/magazine/funnypagesClowes.html

A minor masterpiece!

Yokoyama's new (in translation) book seals the deal...he's a genius of the form.

check his shit out...a genuinely distinctive talent

Looks really good.

well i'm feeling it...

you type like that's a bad thing. sounds good to me! how does this shit work tho, these things are fuckin tiny no, are you lookin at 2 panels at a time or some shit? cbr i take it?

Interested to see an increasing amount of namechecks for DEADLINE of all things amongst the current US alt comix set. i threw away the first year and a half or so of issues a little while back :slanted: it always seemd half baked at best once you'd seen RAW and all that shit...a bit lame in an embarassing English bumbling way. anyone else a buygone reader? all that post Hewlett/ Mccarthy crap, i really don't know...and that awful autobiographical college angst shinola...though i suppose that is very "of the moment"

 

[Sick Boy]

Not this one in particular but the series in general ^

Ditto for this

Also, I've really been digging old Avengers comics recently. It's really cheesy blockbuster Marvel fare, but it's a superhero team made up of people who are way, way too powerful that it's generally hard to ever really feel any suspense when they fight the bad guys. A stupid idea in premise, but there is something pretty entertaining about these ultramen protecting us little guys by just smashing the shit out of evil.

 

[luka]

i liked those maxx comics. i remember getting that first one you pictured when it come out and i was about 12. i like that guy a lot.

 

[droid]

you type like that's a bad thing. sounds good to me! how does this shit work tho, these things are fuckin tiny no, are you lookin at 2 panels at a time or some shit? cbr i take it?

Interested to see an increasing amount of namechecks for DEADLINE of all things amongst the current US alt comix set. i threw away the first year and a half or so of issues a little while back :slanted: it always seemd half baked at best once you'd seen RAW and all that shit...a bit lame in an embarassing English bumbling way. anyone else a buygone reader? all that post Hewlett/ Mccarthy crap, i really don't know...and that awful autobiographical college angst shinola...though i suppose that is very "of the moment"

its a mixed bag - some of its great - some makes me wonder why I ever liked it.

I use comic reader DS which is actually very good, you get the whole page on the bottom screen and use the top screen to zoom in and out of single panels. Its great for the close in view, but obv you miss the subconscious reading of the whole page. Everything is CBR converted to a custom format, quality is fine as long as you set the resolution high enough. Its good fun zooming waaaay in on the details.

I was big into deadline at the time. Have signed copy of issue 1 tucked away somewhere. I think the first 20 or so issues still have some very fine moments, I remember in particular some of the articles blowing my mind - an interview with Alan Moore and something about feminist theory and porn - all very revealing stuff for a 13 year old comics fan.

A1 is THE British comic anthology of the 90's though. Pity it didn't last very long. Also - 'Revolver', with the revisionist Dan dare and the Charles Shaar Murray Hendrix bio. Met him at a signing once - what a prick!

I think 'Crisis' is tremendously undervalued as well...

 

[sufi]

80's was all about warrior

http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard Arndt/Warrior.htm

 

[droid]

Yes! Years ahead of it's time.

It's a crying shame that Marvelman was mired in so much legal bullshit.

 

[Corpsey]

Peter Bagge's ''Hate''.

Haven't got a scanner, obviously.

I've got 'Watchmen' on a shelf somewhere, half-read. Used to read 2000AD regularly.

Going to check out some of the suggestions in here.

 

[Dunninger]

i liked those maxx comics. i remember getting that first one you pictured when it come out and i was about 12. i like that guy a lot.

Sam Kieth is great. One of my favourite comics of ~last year is his 'My Inner Bimbo' mini series for Oni Press. A dark but also funny and surreal story about an old man whose warped feminine side manifests itself magically as a young blonde woman. I still haven't really decrypted the whole thing.

 

[Dunninger]

surprising how little heat this thread generates

So let's bring it on

given we are in an unprecedented period of activity, popularity and possibly invention within the medium

What exactly do you have in mind? I don't follow statistics, as far as I know in terms of sales comics aren't really more popular than some years ago, except for some single titles.

 

[droid]

Manga sales in particular are through the roof. Even mainstream cape comics are doing better sales-wise (last year at least) and there seems to be more quality coming though in the indie scene than there has been for some years.

Here is a working torrent for the entire run of warrior for the nostalgia freaks:

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Warrior-Comic-zapretro-h33t/28492f3292caa8984815928546ea5ad009490a5e2bc8

 

[BareBones]

surprising how little heat this thread generates given we are in an unprecedented period of activity, popularity and possibly invention within the medium


maybe comix are still fatally tarred w. the nerd brush....

I used to be really into comics when I was younger, mainly 2000AD and mainstream Marvel stuff like Spider-man, but I've kind of given up on them now. There's just so much out there - too much really for me - and whenever i've delved into it again, I've found it impossible to keep up with it all. It's hard enough trying to keep up with new music, and with an enormous pile of novels in my 'to read' list, i just can't see how i'm ever going to break into it again - no matter how much i'd like to. Sadly, there just isn't enough hours in the day. I honestly don't know how you guys manage it! It's just the occasional graphic novel for me these days...

 

[sodiumnightlife]

I like graphic novels and stuff but am little more than a toe dipper, I know very little about them. I recently bought two collections of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's short stories and really like them, do any of you guys know him?

 

[Dunninger]

Manga sales in particular are through the roof. Even mainstream cape comics are doing better sales-wise (last year at least) and there seems to be more quality coming though in the indie scene than there has been for some years.

I really don't have a clue about manga, so you're probably right there. And I agree that there's some good stuff coming out right now, but I don't really perceive this as a lot more than some years ago.

 

[droid]

I like graphic novels and stuff but am little more than a toe dipper, I know very little about them. I recently bought two collections of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's short stories and really like them, do any of you guys know him?

Yep - see previous page of this thread, also for fokses recomendations along similar lines.