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brianregan09 · 16-05-2012, 14:28

On Birth of Venom at the moment really awesome story and cool to see what happened after Secret Wars which is one of my favourite stories ever

oeb · 17-05-2012, 20:20

I had not read much since my late teens (comic wise) but recently I started reading them again. (My 5 year old is obsessed with Spiderman, so I started collecting that Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel set to keep for him when he is older, I have been reading them in the meantime, and I'm hooked.)

This week a friend of mine gave me some of his favorite DC stuff, which I have been working through.

I read "Red Son", "Whatever happened to the caped crusader" and "Earth One" over the last couple of days. All very good.

brianregan09 · 19-05-2012, 18:20

Read Blackest Night 1-8 the other night don't really like DC but loved this and would recommend for anyone its not Marvel Zombies for DC its so much more

richymcdermott · 19-05-2012, 22:09

picked up future foundation volume 1 issues 1-5 by jonathan hickman
havent got around to reading it yet but spiderman looks awesome

**Fysh** · 29-05-2012, 14:28

It's an age since I posted here last, and I'm not about to get bogged down in trying to list everything so I'll just mention some highlights in no particular order (mainly stuff I picked up at the Bristol Expo recently):

Funrama #1 & 2 (Ryan Kelly) - 4.5/5

(Ordered online direct from Ryan Kelly's website) I really liked these issues. A lot more than I thought I might, especially after seeing someone describe the writing as "Silver-age influenced" (I don't have much interest in or time for silver age comics or homages to them). But this was great, explaining what's going on without too much exposition (neatly helped by an inner monologue via caption boxes rather than convoluted dialogue) and some lovely art. At first I thought each issue would be self-contained but it seems that while they work that way, there's a thread that will run through future issues as well. And yes, I look forward to issue 3 with Cactus-Man the Union Buster.

More info here.

No More Heroes #1 & 2 (Gordon McLean) - 4/5

There's a lot to like about NMH. At a publishing level I'm delighted that Gordon has decided to make this available in digital form using both CBR & PDF formats at a wallet-friendly £1, and at a narrative level I'm happy to see that he's bringing nasty pitch-black humour together with his particular notions about superheroes and supervillains. The humour, I think, is what I'm liking about this more than anything else - it's not unlike Garth Ennis when he's on form (eg Dicks or the best bits of Preacher). For example, what's not to like about Spoiler: a villain who blows up a polar bear with a rocket-launcher at a zoo, spraying kids nearby with bear innards? :D It's serious when it needs to be, but nastily, devastatingly funny otherwise. The art is very nice as well, rounding out the whole package. At £1 a go digitally you could do a lot worse.

More info here.

Tuk Tuk #1 by Will Kirkby - 5/5

Will's one of those folks whose work I find very visually appealing. It's been a while since I picked up something of his - probably Birdsong/Songbird, the reads-both-ways comic he put together with Naniiebim - so when I got a chance to catch up with him at Bristol, I figured I'd pick up Tuk-Tuk #1. It's an oversize full-colour comic with a very nice print job, so it's not cheap, but my oh my is it ever lovely. I've mentioned before that I get annoyed at folk taking the piss with pricing on their comics - you can sell expensive comics, but you've got to back up that price tag. I think this is something like £7, but despite that it's worth it. It's written in what I think of as a traditionally-British style, so 2-page stories that are relatively self-contained but flow together to make a bigger story. This leads to some very clever ideas for integrating the logo into the page in different ways, and some glorious artwork. A standout for me was the strip that's set up as a 2-page spread combining a story, a detailed map of the city where events are taking place, and a breathtakingly pretty vista of the cityscape.

The only problem I have with this being so bloody good is that Will takes his sweet time in putting stuff out. I imagine I'll be re-reading this rather a lot, though, because it's bloody gorgeous.

More info here.

Tales Of The Spiffing by Various - 5/5

It's no secret that I'm an absolute mug for anthologies. I like the idea of getting a bunch of different stories and styles in one book, and for every crap anthology I've read at least one bloody good one so for my money it's usually worth the risk.

Enter Tales Of The Spiffing, a collection of comics from folks who've all done work for Aardman Animation in the UK. It's sort of like what you'd get if you tried to capture the magic that infused the first 2-3 volumes of the Flight anthology series and recreate it with a mostly-UK animation creative base and used Britishness as a theme. Visually, it's gorgeous - as you'd expect, the storytelling is top-notch, and there are some lovely tricks on use here. The range of styles is impressive, and the quality is tremendous. To make it even better, since I picked my copy up at Bristol I ended up having a lengthy chat with two of the contributing artists and thus have two amazing sketches adorning my copy.

I can't say enough good things about this comic. I'm on board for the next volume (Taxi, using a taxi-driver and his various fares as the framing device for the anthology) and can't wait.

More info here.

Done To Death by Andrew Foley & Fiona Staples - 4/5

I'm not a fan of emo vampires, whether they're from Anne Rice or any of the more recent fad of foppish fawning fools a la Twilight. I am, however, a fan of nasty writing with black humour, and atmospheric painted artwork.

As a result a cheap collection of the single-issue form of Done To Death was right up my alley. After a clever scene-setting insert on the inside front cover, we're quickly introduced to our protagonist - a bored book editor stuck at a niche publisher sifting through endless books of terrible vampire prose (and worse, occasionally poetry - or worse yet, poetry disguised as prose). We're fairly quickly informed that our protagonist is a serial killer. And yet she remains the closest thing to a hero in this story, which should tell you all you need to know about the kind of story this is.

I really liked it - it doesn't settle for merely skewering a tedious trend that has been generating unimaginative knock-offs for years, and it has fantastic artwork to boot. Well worth a look if you like your horror but are tired of clichéd vampire tales.

More info at IDW's page.

More later when I'm at home looking at the pile o' comics.

chrismartin4u · 06-06-2012, 11:55

Serenity- float out...

ec18 · 06-06-2012, 15:29

avengers vs xmen

Mal-Adjusted · 06-06-2012, 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by ec18

avengers vs xmen

Any good?

I got that thick trade for Batman: no man's land vol:1. Gonna tear into it over the next week.

also reading more of ALan Moore's Swamp Thing, it's a bit surreal to see John Constantine interact with other Superheroes. Say what you want about Alan, he was a master storyteller.

**Thwip!** · 06-06-2012, 23:30

Starting Shadowland tonight, anyone read it and let me know what you thought?

Omrick · 10-06-2012, 10:37

I’ve just finished reading The Sandman. It was quite interesting. The character development, narrative and scope of story are on a level with high literature. I highly recommend it!

**Thwip!** · 10-06-2012, 13:45

Finished Shadowland, was quite interesting. i thoroughly enjoyed it

Mal-Adjusted · 10-06-2012, 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omrick

I’ve just finished reading The Sandman. It was quite interesting. The character development, narrative and scope of story are on a level with high literature. I highly recommend it!

the entire series? well done. I started on the re-coloured editions so i'm only up to volume 8.

side note. got Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 the other day on a whim. quite good, even if it is all setup.

stuchyg · 16-06-2012, 13:18

Reading Batman Dark Victory atm, really enjoying it so far, I quite like the darker Batman storylines

Fuzz McG · 17-06-2012, 03:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mal-Adjusted

side note. got Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 the other day on a whim. quite good, even if it is all setup.

Well it is a prequel!

Fuzz McG · 17-06-2012, 23:02

Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1: Picked this up second-hand recently and quite enjoyed it. Old-school superhero adventuring, they don't make 'em like this anymore!

It's funny reading some older comics from the 80s compared to newer comics; they take longer to read but seem a lot less muddled and all-over-the-place as new stuff in terms of panels and artwork.

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16-05-2012, 14:28	#1531
brianregan09 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 1,163 Adverts \| Friends	On Birth of Venom at the moment really awesome story and cool to see what happened after Secret Wars which is one of my favourite stories ever

17-05-2012, 20:20	#1532
oeb Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 2,249 Adverts \| Friends	I had not read much since my late teens (comic wise) but recently I started reading them again. (My 5 year old is obsessed with Spiderman, so I started collecting that Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel set to keep for him when he is older, I have been reading them in the meantime, and I'm hooked.) This week a friend of mine gave me some of his favorite DC stuff, which I have been working through. I read "Red Son", "Whatever happened to the caped crusader" and "Earth One" over the last couple of days. All very good.

19-05-2012, 18:20	#1533
brianregan09 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 1,163 Adverts \| Friends	Read Blackest Night 1-8 the other night don't really like DC but loved this and would recommend for anyone its not Marvel Zombies for DC its so much more

19-05-2012, 22:09	#1534
richymcdermott Registered User Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Ga-ga-ga-Galway Posts: 2,826 Adverts \| Friends	picked up future foundation volume 1 issues 1-5 by jonathan hickman havent got around to reading it yet but spiderman looks awesome

29-05-2012, 14:28	#1535
Fysh Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: London Posts: 7,531 Adverts \| Friends Mod: Comics, Living Abroad, London	It's an age since I posted here last, and I'm not about to get bogged down in trying to list everything so I'll just mention some highlights in no particular order (mainly stuff I picked up at the Bristol Expo recently): Funrama #1 & 2 (Ryan Kelly) - 4.5/5 (Ordered online direct from Ryan Kelly's website) I really liked these issues. A lot more than I thought I might, especially after seeing someone describe the writing as "Silver-age influenced" (I don't have much interest in or time for silver age comics or homages to them). But this was great, explaining what's going on without too much exposition (neatly helped by an inner monologue via caption boxes rather than convoluted dialogue) and some lovely art. At first I thought each issue would be self-contained but it seems that while they work that way, there's a thread that will run through future issues as well. And yes, I look forward to issue 3 with Cactus-Man the Union Buster. More info here. No More Heroes #1 & 2 (Gordon McLean) - 4/5 There's a lot to like about NMH. At a publishing level I'm delighted that Gordon has decided to make this available in digital form using both CBR & PDF formats at a wallet-friendly £1, and at a narrative level I'm happy to see that he's bringing nasty pitch-black humour together with his particular notions about superheroes and supervillains. The humour, I think, is what I'm liking about this more than anything else - it's not unlike Garth Ennis when he's on form (eg Dicks or the best bits of Preacher). For example, what's not to like about Spoiler: a villain who blows up a polar bear with a rocket-launcher at a zoo, spraying kids nearby with bear innards? :D It's serious when it needs to be, but nastily, devastatingly funny otherwise. The art is very nice as well, rounding out the whole package. At £1 a go digitally you could do a lot worse. More info here. Tuk Tuk #1 by Will Kirkby - 5/5 Will's one of those folks whose work I find very visually appealing. It's been a while since I picked up something of his - probably Birdsong/Songbird, the reads-both-ways comic he put together with Naniiebim - so when I got a chance to catch up with him at Bristol, I figured I'd pick up Tuk-Tuk #1. It's an oversize full-colour comic with a very nice print job, so it's not cheap, but my oh my is it ever lovely. I've mentioned before that I get annoyed at folk taking the piss with pricing on their comics - you can sell expensive comics, but you've got to back up that price tag. I think this is something like £7, but despite that it's worth it. It's written in what I think of as a traditionally-British style, so 2-page stories that are relatively self-contained but flow together to make a bigger story. This leads to some very clever ideas for integrating the logo into the page in different ways, and some glorious artwork. A standout for me was the strip that's set up as a 2-page spread combining a story, a detailed map of the city where events are taking place, and a breathtakingly pretty vista of the cityscape. The only problem I have with this being so bloody good is that Will takes his sweet time in putting stuff out. I imagine I'll be re-reading this rather a lot, though, because it's bloody gorgeous. More info here. Tales Of The Spiffing by Various - 5/5 It's no secret that I'm an absolute mug for anthologies. I like the idea of getting a bunch of different stories and styles in one book, and for every crap anthology I've read at least one bloody good one so for my money it's usually worth the risk. Enter Tales Of The Spiffing, a collection of comics from folks who've all done work for Aardman Animation in the UK. It's sort of like what you'd get if you tried to capture the magic that infused the first 2-3 volumes of the Flight anthology series and recreate it with a mostly-UK animation creative base and used Britishness as a theme. Visually, it's gorgeous - as you'd expect, the storytelling is top-notch, and there are some lovely tricks on use here. The range of styles is impressive, and the quality is tremendous. To make it even better, since I picked my copy up at Bristol I ended up having a lengthy chat with two of the contributing artists and thus have two amazing sketches adorning my copy. I can't say enough good things about this comic. I'm on board for the next volume (Taxi, using a taxi-driver and his various fares as the framing device for the anthology) and can't wait. More info here. Done To Death by Andrew Foley & Fiona Staples - 4/5 I'm not a fan of emo vampires, whether they're from Anne Rice or any of the more recent fad of foppish fawning fools a la Twilight. I am, however, a fan of nasty writing with black humour, and atmospheric painted artwork. As a result a cheap collection of the single-issue form of Done To Death was right up my alley. After a clever scene-setting insert on the inside front cover, we're quickly introduced to our protagonist - a bored book editor stuck at a niche publisher sifting through endless books of terrible vampire prose (and worse, occasionally poetry - or worse yet, poetry disguised as prose). We're fairly quickly informed that our protagonist is a serial killer. And yet she remains the closest thing to a hero in this story, which should tell you all you need to know about the kind of story this is. I really liked it - it doesn't settle for merely skewering a tedious trend that has been generating unimaginative knock-offs for years, and it has fantastic artwork to boot. Well worth a look if you like your horror but are tired of clichéd vampire tales. More info at IDW's page. More later when I'm at home looking at the pile o' comics.

06-06-2012, 11:55	#1536
chrismartin4u Registered User Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 41 Adverts \| Friends	Serenity- float out...

06-06-2012, 15:29	#1537
ec18 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Wherever I lay my head is Home Posts: 1,420 Adverts \| Friends	avengers vs xmen

06-06-2012, 23:30	#1539
Thwip! Moderator Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2,597 Adverts \| Friends Mod: NUI Maynooth	Starting Shadowland tonight, anyone read it and let me know what you thought?

10-06-2012, 10:37	#1540
Omrick Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 2 Adverts \| Friends	I’ve just finished reading The Sandman. It was quite interesting. The character development, narrative and scope of story are on a level with high literature. I highly recommend it!

10-06-2012, 13:45	#1541
Thwip! Moderator Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2,597 Adverts \| Friends Mod: NUI Maynooth	Finished Shadowland, was quite interesting. i thoroughly enjoyed it

16-06-2012, 13:18	#1543
stuchyg Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 551 Adverts \| Friends	Reading Batman Dark Victory atm, really enjoying it so far, I quite like the darker Batman storylines

17-06-2012, 23:02	#1545
Fuzz McG Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 104 Adverts \| Friends	Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1: Picked this up second-hand recently and quite enjoyed it. Old-school superhero adventuring, they don't make 'em like this anymore! It's funny reading some older comics from the 80s compared to newer comics; they take longer to read but seem a lot less muddled and all-over-the-place as new stuff in terms of panels and artwork.