You have to love DC. They practically created a genre: the continuity-twisting epic. When any sensible writer would just put “this story is the beginning of a new continuity” or “this is an Elseworld’s tale” on the first page and get on with it, DC’s guys will first do a maxiseries that spans several titles and lasts for a year.
I haven’t followed mainstream comics in over ten years, because DC puts so much time in screwing with the multiverse and pays so little attention to just telling good stories. I can’t keep up with their shit anymore.
Incidentally, I finally acquired Maus. After reading the first volume, I will say that Art Spiegelman has definitely won a new fan in me. I found the second volume in, of all places, the biography section of Barnes & Noble.
Anyone read eric powell’s the goon? I think it’s a really fun book. I’m also a fan of bendis. I think some of his stuff can be a hit or miss, but the bendis/maleev daredevil run was ridiculously awesome. Powers is good too. I think Brubaker’s run so far on DD is pretty good, but I am still not sure if I’m liking it completely. I also like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy when it first started. Ellis is great as well. Has anyone read Ellis’ book Crooked Little Vein: A Novel?
Since I just got back into the game of comics, I’ll say right now it is
Hudlin (not too bad in BP but not like Priest)
Priest (the signature about black comedies is from his site)
Guggenheim (did an awesome job in the CW of wolverine.)
Yeah, I’m really down with Priest. I spent a whole afternoon just reading all the anecdotes and stuff on his website. MK Black Panther is just one of those things I wish they’d reprint. I’m constantly on the lookout for a good full run of that series because it’ll be like 30 years before they do an Essential MK BP. Seems like most of his stuff has been uncollected, which is just a pain when it comes to tracking down his fine, fine work.
Brian K Vaughn is the only write who I’ll buy his work, just based on the name alone. Between his work on Y!, Ex Machina, Runaways, The Hood, Dr. Strange, Pride of Baghdad, etc etc, he can’t be touched. Too bad his work is going to dwindle huge in the next few years with LOST going on.
I also love most stuff by Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis (Nextwave!, Thunderbolts!), Bendis, Matt Fraction, some of Grant Morrison (its either shit or genius), Dan Slott, Geoff Johns. Theres lot of talent right now.
Haha, forgot about this thread. WISE FLOM YOUR GRAVE
For the record though, I don’t hate Bendis. I enjoy a lot of his work, and I have a huge amount of respect for him as a creator of comic books. I just also happen to hate some of his stuff as well, and I just also happen to believe that he is indirectly responsible for the death of comic books. That’s it, no biggie.
And I’m still wondering how we should proceed with the realization that Taichi, our resident DC Fanboy, barely even reads any DC comic books. I’m still thinking Skrull IMPOSTER, so I’m hoping the next issue of New Avengers comes out soon because then we can just follow whatever they do in the book. Seriously…that just makes no sense. How can you be a fan of comics without…you know…reading them?
I can’t believe those are actual bits they’ve written that he’s quoting - it’s just so on the money, it brings a tear to my eye. We should start our own Pitchfork Media version for comics, and be as absolutely snobby and elitist as we can. I think your annoying and pretentious English major better-than-thou snideness and my raw hatred for everything and everyone could combine together for one excellent comic book snob.
We can do it if we move quickly - last time I checked, MarkMillarSucksBalls.com is still unregistered.
Okay, I see what you’re saying. That’s true, All-Star Superman does just have enough empirical, objective COOLNESS about it that makes a reader’s prior familiarity level with the franchise irrelevant when going through it.
But in that sense it’s more of just a good story (rather than a good SUPERMAN story) to new readers. I think that’s what you mean when there’s texture and bonus goodies in there for those of us who are already familiar with the Superman mythos. Plus, it’s neat to compare this to the classic Superman stories (ie. What Ever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?) and especially to the other attempts to reimagine the character, like Ultimate Superman style (ie. Millar’s Red Son, Waid’s Birthright and Kingdom Come, Busiek’s Secret Identity, or The Dark Side by John Francis).
The way Morrison’s writing this is pretty cool though - it’s not a straight up reimagining or Ultimatizing of the character with a new story intro or whatever. Just hit the ground running, this is how All-Star Superman is, deal with it, and figure it out as you go along. And it kinda combines the old school Pre-Crisis, Alan Moore take of the character with the new stuff that Morrison brought back from his last trip to Acid Town.
Daniel Way is like a homeless man’s Garth Ennis though, so it’s like you can also see the potential of the Ennis/Dillon team-up…only you’ll know you’ll never get there. It’s like you’re watching Ricky Davis on the court…and he can drive like Kobe, he can shoot like Kobe, he can pass like Kobe…only you know that he’ll never put it all together to actually BE like Kobe.
And Maverick was pimp! I bought his mini! Shut up!
I mean after that, how believable could it be if little wimpy puppy boy grew up to be like a black-ops, ninja killing, beer and cigar guzzling whirling machine of hairy death? Not believable at all.
Good thing that didn’t happen. At all.
And buddy, you got it wrong with the Midnight vs. Deathstroke talk. How could that fight even last that long?
Deathstroke’s A MASTER COMBAT STRATEGIST. Normal humans use like 10% of their brains - HE USED SOMETHING LIKE I DON’T KNOW, 90% LET’S SAY
Did you see him goad Flash into stabbing himself with a sword? And even though everyone in the DCU knows that Deathstroke beats Batman like a drum in straight fisticuffs, he still goaded Green Lantern into throwing a punch at him. And yes, it was with the hand with the ring on it, but they don’t call it the most powerful weapon in the universe for NUTHIN’. He was so good that he even violated DCU continuity and almost managed to override a ring that’s only usable by the Green Lantern that owns it. And then the part where he managed to use his normal human eyes to inhumanly see a photon-sized Atom and then PROCEEDED TO SHOOT HIM WITH A LASER POINTER!?!
Now some may just chalk that up to terrible writing…but I personally believe that it’s just ALL SKILL BABY.
Midnighter ain’t got nothing on that.
…what is Travis Charest doing nowadays? He’s too good of an artist to deny the world of his abilities. Less Michael Turner variant covers and more Travis Charest ones, please.
Haha, man. I remember that David Cross article. That was great.
There’s just something about Bitchfork that constantly draws me to their site. I don’t even agree with or respect most of their elitist reviews, but I read a lot of them anyway. They just make me laugh.
Just looking at some of those quotations from the David Cross article, you’d think that it was all a hardcore joke. I mean it’s like the site is just an unintentional self-parody. They haven’t realized that the novelty has worn off and they just continue to provide what they’ve always been known for. Sort of like Claremont. They served a purpose back in the day, but now you just read 'em for a chuckle.
And if you’re serious about MarkMillarLovesGoats.net, I am totally down. We could also recruit goodmourning (or however the hell that pretentious bum writes his name- I think at least one of those O’s is a number zero). He’d be the grandmaster of our site.
Every week, we could just sit atop a mountain of Marvel and DC’s and laugh at all the lowbrow, uncultured people who buy, read, or enjoy them. Then we’d write a 5 page essay about the new Drawn & Quarterly or Fantagraphics book and how monumental it is. Nobody would read it other than ourselves, but we would feel nice and special not being like the masses.
Although, come to think of it, I think there is a Bitchfork for comics already.
It’s called The Comics Journal.
Haha… Geez. Did I really use the word “texture” in describing All-Star Superman? Do I really sound that pompous? Oh, well. Smartest guy in the room usually sounds pompous. It’s my curse and possibly the closest thing I have to a flaw.
So you admit you’ve read Red Son, eh? Admit it- that was a good comic. Mark Millar wrote that, too. You’ll have to take Red Son Superman for your Marvel/DC football team. Normal DC Superman (due to his lack of leadership, lack of football smarts, and general pussiness) is probably only worth a Bronze Tier (Silver at most), but Red Son is Gold Tier, easy.
I never did read The Dark Side, though. There goes my indie street cred. Give me a detailed synopsis and analysis, followed by an intelligent and wordy review, please, so I can then go around telling everyone else what to think about it.
I wish more comic books were like that, man. I hate how people nowadays feel like they have to know the complete biography of a character before they can start reading. It’s like people these days are too scared to try a new comic if it isn’t a #1. We need more writers like Morrison who don’t underestimate a reader’s intelligence. People should just be able to jump in randomly and enjoy a good story.
I hate how people are always telling me to watch Lost or Heroes, and then when I do watch an episode and tell them I wasn’t particularly impressed, they start saying, “Aw man! You’ll love it, trust me! You just gotta watch it from the beginning!”
The hell with that shit. Who has time to watch dozens of episodes just to TRY to get emotionally invested? Sheesh.
That’s why kids these days don’t want to read comic books. Who the hell wants to read 886 issues of Detective Comics just to “catch up” and follow the current story?
A homeless man’s Ennis? Only if the homeless man has only one limb. And lives in the most dilapidated shanty town in an impoverished third world country.
Every time I hear about Ricky Davis, I always think about the guy who bricked a shot at his own basket in the vain hope of collecting that last rebound to complete his triple double. I’m excited for the day when he shoots in his own basket in an attempt to score 82 points. Now that KG’s gone, that’s probably the only reason to watch the T’Wolves. Just hope and pray that Ricky D does something unexpected.
Maverick sucks. Warrior was always way cooler. Get with the program, bub. WE BELIEVE
He can guzzle cigars now? That’s so over-the-top that it sounds like something that Mark Millar would write.
Y’know, now that I think about it, ORIGIN also got a lot of things right about puppy boy’s past. For instance, he ran with the wolves, baby! In Canada! Isn’t it hella cold up in Canada? And in the comic, it was snowing when he danced with the wolves. But he had his shirt off! That blew me away. That’s character development right there, Clinty: a simpering, puppy-loving, snot-nosed softie experiences the traumatic murder of his pet, and grows up, matures, and hardens into this angry loner badass who runs alongside a wolf pack in snowy Torontoland. Isn’t it ABOOOT time you accepted ORIGIN as the definitive story of puppy boy? Eh, bub?
He’s making a comeback to American comics, baby. After struggling to do like 50 pages of a Euro graphic album over the past 6 or 7 years, he’s given up and decided to make a fresh start.
I first noticed his work on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic. He did a couple of covers. The stuff inside the covers wasn’t anything good, but man. Travis Charest and Star Wars is like LeBron and Big Z. Sure, you can think of better, more winning combinations. But until you do, you gotta enjoy whatever you can take.
Charest is also doing variant covers for the upcoming Marvel Knights Captain America: The Chosen miniseries. (Written by David Morrell, the guy who wrote the old Rambo novels, among other stuff.) I think it’ll be a great miniseries. Definitely something to buy as a TRADE, BABY.
Yeah, I really like Kevin Smith, too. Lots of impatient, Lost-watching, Heroes-loving, Internet-using snobs hate him for the massive delays he caused in writing some of his comics, though. But his Green Arrow is straight money. I think that and Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do are both way better than his Daredevil run. Which isn’t as bad as P. Gabby would have us all believe.
He’s been growing on me lately. I just read Whiteout and thought it was completely fantastic. I think one of these days I may even give Queen & Country another chance.
It’d be cool if Rucka started writing a Marvel series or two.
I just want to resurrect this little snippet because I recently obtained Watchmen: the Absolute Edition, which includes several pages of Alan Moore’s original script. People, if you ever get a chance to read this shit, it’s fascinating. Moore does what Gaiman does, treating his script as a friendly piece of correspondence with the artist, but in incredibly fine detail, like you’d expect Geoff Darrow to write if he were to do such a script. He devoted an entire page of script to just the first panel of Watchmen. The second page is spent discussing only the second and third panel. This is, mind you, all the same exact shot, the one that tracks upward from the smiley face button in the gutter up to Edward Blake’s apartment.
You might think that such an insane amount of writing would leave no room for the artist to be creative, but you’d be wrong. A lot of the text is Moore basically giving Gibbons a series of options, and describing where the artistic wiggle room is. Show this here if you can, and it’s up to you if you want to do this or this or this here, and so on and so forth. A very good read. If anything, the writing also helps you appreciate just how great the artwork is, because of all the nuances that you’d think are either too fine or too conceptual to capture. And, of course, the best way to appreciate the art is with the Absolute Edition.